Labor seeks 5% growth, to halve unemployment

The Labor Party on Sunday published its socioeconomic program, calling for 5% annual economic grow, slicing the unemployment level nearly in half and a hike in the minimum monthly wage to $1,000. The plan was presented by Professor Avishai Braverman, the party spokesman on economic affairs who is pegged for a top job if Labor is part of a post-election government. He called it a four-year program that would generate income that can be used for the well-being of the common man. "With the money we will generate from growth, we will invest NIS 9 billion in helping low-tech companies invest in sophisticated production equipment that will increase the productivity of the worker and allow proprietors to pay better wages," Braverman told The Jerusalem Post. Meanwhile, referring to Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu's claim that he would eradicate poverty in three years, Labor Chairman Amir Peretz said, "We [Labor] are presenting a program which can be implemented and not a program of words - not promises which cannot be implemented." The program itself is based on a gradual increase of the minimum monthly wage to $1,000; a decrease in the activities of manpower companies; ensuring equal educational opportunities for all; pensions for all; as well as a policy that would ensure that no undue influence is exerted the political decision making by the very affluent. It also calls in cutting unemployment by nearly half to 5% from the current 8.9%. Braverman estimates 5% economic growth would generate additional income of NIS 50 billion for the government over the next four years, while savings in spending on the settlements and the Ministry of Defense would generate an added NIS 18b. The plan calls for a 20% increase in the budget of the Ministry of Education and the addition of NIS 400 million to the cultural budget to strengthen the country's cultural orientation and make cultural events more accessible. An additional NIS 4b. would be added to the law enforcement budget while NIS 10b. would be spent on enhancing education and health in the Arab sector; NIS 7b. more would be spent on the elderly; NIS 4b. would be added to budgets for the handicapped; NIS 5b. would be added to the health budget; NIS 6b. would be added to the budget for the development of Jerusalem, the Negev and the Galilee; and an additional NIS 4b. would be invested in research and development.

Labor seeks 5% growth, to halve unemployment

The plan calls for a 20% increase in the budget of the Ministry of Education and the addition of NIS 400m. to the cultural budget to strengthen the country's cultural orientation and make cultural events more accessible.

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