Unemployment rises to 7%
11/29/2012 06:18
Yacimovich criticizes Netanyahu for failing to respond to current jobless data.
People stand in line at the Employment Authority. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
The jobless rate rose to 7 percent in October, from 6.9% the previous month, the
Central Bureau of Statistics reported Wednesday.
The female jobless rate
rose from 6.5% to 6.9%, canceling out a drop in the male jobless rate from 7.3%
to 7%. Males accounted for almost 53% of the 3.384 million individuals who had
jobs in October.
Workforce participation fell to 63.8% from 64.1%, while
the employment rate fell to 59.4% from 59.6%.
Unemployment hit a
three-year high of 7.1% in June, fell to 6.5% in July and has gradually risen
since then to its current mark of 7%.
Labor chairwoman Shelly Yacimovich
criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday for not responding to
the latest data, saying his government’s “outdated economic methods” were the
cause of high unemployment and were leading Israel toward becoming a “nation of
income gaps in which we cannot earn a living and a respectable existence.”