Heading for period of growth?
Photo: Shutterstock
Steinitz: 44,300 new jobs created in March
Finance Minister presents government with data that some 44,300 new job opportunities opened in March, could Indicate period of economic growth
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz
on Monday presented the government with data that stated that some 44,300 new job opportunities opened in Israel
March. This after the number of jobs on the market decreased by 16,200 in February.
According to the minister, some 270,000 new jobs were created over the past three years. He added that it was possible to see that over the last few years the Israeli market was creating jobs at a higher rate than the rate of employees joining the market, which may indicate that the drop in unemployment in Israel comes as a result of growth rather than a low percentage of participation in the workforce.
Employment
Ran Rimon
Special job fair offers positions for southern residents above 45 years of age
The data presented by the finance minister is based on comparative research carried out by the research and economy section in the ministry, based on data collected by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
According to 2012 monthly data, the number of jobs on the market decreased by 16,200 between January and February. The number of available jobs decreased by 5,400 with the number of people employed in the market decreasing by 10,800.
Yet between February and March Israel witnessed an unusual surge in the number of new jobs in the market. The number of available jobs grew by 11,400 with the number of people employed also increasing by 32,900.
The data presented will have to be watched closely over the next few months is order to decide if there is indeed a new period of growth in the Israeli market. This, due to the fact that the new system of reviewing Israel's manpower statistics causes a great deal of data fluctuation and may lead to surprising results.
The Finance Ministry research section claims that while the data must be given time to stabilize, it is already possible to see that based on long term research, there is a trend of consistent growth in the number of jobs on the Israeli market.
"Israel's labor force includes some 5.5 million people," Eldad Kovalsky at the ministry's research and economy section told Ynet. "Out of which slightly less than 3.5 million take part in the workforce, which means working or searching for work. Every year the number of people taking part (in the workforce) grows by 1.5%. That means that some 45 to 50,000 Israelis join the workforce every year."
"This means that every month the market produces more new jobs than needed in order to maintain a steady unemployment rates, "Kovalsky noted. "It doesn't necessarily mean that all the new people joining (the workforce) are accepted. In March for example, only 35,000 people joining the workforce found jobs."
