Unemployment in Israel in the second half of August rose from 5.3% to 5.6%, the Central Bureau of Statistics reports. At the same time, broad unemployment, which includes those on unpaid leave, fell from 8.1% to 7.8%.
These figures are not contradictory but reflect a trend whereby people on unpaid leave (temporarily unemployed) are either returning to work or becoming permanently unemployed, Globes reports.
The current broad unemployment of 7.8% is more than double the 3.4% rate of unemployment that there was in Israel at the end of 2019 before the Covid pandemic struck.
