Although the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shutterng of the economy hurt the majority of Israelis, most of them appear to be women. According to the Employment Service report published Thursday, 70% of newly unemployed in the third nationwide lockdown are women.
According to the report, since the start of the third national closure 26 days ago, 144,599 Israelis have registered for unemployment, with nearly 100,000 of them being women who had been either fired or furloughed.
Over the past day, 2,948 people have registered for unemployment, with a staggering 56,500 registries during the second week of January alone, two and a half times higher than in the previous four weeks.
Data also showed that due to the complete shut down of the school system, 37,885 of the newly unemployed are teachers and educational workers, making up 26.2% of all new job seekers.
Sales, managers and workers in the fashion and food industries as well as over 50s and young people also make up a large chunk of the new registries.
Employment officials warn that following the government's decision to extend the lockdown by ten days earlier this week, at least 20,000 people are expected to register with the service.
Dr. Gal Zaher, head of the Employment Service's research and policy department, said the data shows the need for a quick, massive and serious measure to help as many unemployed to go back to work as possible, either to their previous jobs or create new ones.