Job vacancies drop in November

Job vacancies drop in No

By SHARON WROBEL
The number of job vacancies in the private sector fell by nearly 20 percent from 50,000 in the month of September to 40,600 during the month of November, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. "The biggest decline in the number of job vacancies in November compared with October was found in the business services sector," stated the CBS report. "Within the business services sector, the decrease was most felt in human resource services and provision of personnel, and in security and cleaning services." Since September the number of job vacancies declined gradually from 50,000 to 44,100 in October and 40,600 in November. The total number of employed Israelis in November stood at 2,015,300, compared with 2,001,300 in October and 2,025,100 in October. The job vacancy ratio, which is a calculation of the ratio between the number of job vacancies and the total employment volume including the number of employed and job vacancies, dropped from 2.4% in September to 2.2% in November. The CBS survey, which collects monthly data about job vacancies in the private sector of the Israeli economy, was launched in May this year. The job vacancy survey was introduced as part of Israel's accession process to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to serve as part of the main economic indicators for the analysis of current economic developments. The CBS emphasized, though, that at this point seasonal adjustments could not be carried out on the survey as there was not enough data for estimating festival, trading day and seasonal factors. The survey includes data from businesses in all area of economic activity, apart from small businesses with less than five employees and agriculture businesses - because of the strongly seasonal nature of their businesses. Separately, a job-seeker survey published by human resource company L.M. Personnel Services Ltd. on Tuesday, showed that the average number of days to find a job fell to 68 days in November, compared with 71 days in the previous month. "In November we saw a moderate recovery in the labor market compared with October," said Rafi Elimelech, CEO of L.M. Personnel Services Ltd. "However, there is still a big gap between the average time of finding work in the labor market before the outbreak of the crisis and the figures today. The average time of finding work has not yet returned to the levels seen before the crisis." The survey noted that the average time to find work stood at 46 days in November last year. Sector by sector analysis found that in November this year it took longest to find work in the hi-tech sector - an average of 210 days compared with 35 days during the same month last year. In the banking sector finding work took an average of 105 days compared with 39 days in November last year. At the same time, senior managers found work within an average of 40 days in November compared with 194 days in October and 125 days in November last year. In the accounting sector, the average time to find work stood at 72 days compared with 41 days in October and 26 days last November.