Unexpected job dismissals and unpaid leave notices are not the only ways that the coronavirus pandemic has rocked the labor market and the Israel Employment Service (IES) said on Sunday that the number of people who quit their jobs in 2020 jumped by about 60% to 47,100, from 29,300 in 2019.
In 2020, the percentage of job seekers who had quit stood at 22.3% and currently, it stands at 22.6%, compared to 16.1% a year earlier and only 12.3% in 2014.
But the higher numbers tell just a part of the story. In past years, when the economy was strong and job opportunities were plentiful, most of the people who quit their jobs and applied for unemployment benefits were well-educated higher-earning individuals holding out for better opportunities, the IES said.
However, during the current crisis, there has been a noticeable rise in the number of low-wage earners quitting their jobs too. These are people who have in the past been more reluctant to leave their jobs, either for lack of financial security or because of a lack of better options.
The IES suggested several reasons for the change. One, was the government’s economic safety net program, which provided a generous set of unemployment benefits for people losing their jobs during the pandemic. The program, which guaranteed as much as 70% of a worker’s original salary for many months after losing their job, provided a low-risk opportunity for mostly young workers to explore other opportunities, the IES said.
The report also noted that the local trend mirrored a similar tendency that has been reported abroad where the crisis prompted people to rethink their life priorities and choose new career paths.
Another issue was the way coronavirus transformed many people’s jobs. Severe cutbacks led to additional stress and anxiety among workers and this often meant that workers who were retained by their employers were forced to take on more duties in the workplace, the IES noted.
Many workers also realized during the crisis that the time had come for them to seek professional retraining courses to upgrade their skills for the changing environment.
“The increase in the number of people resigning among low-wage earners was made possible because of the extension of unemployment benefits until last July,” said Rami Graur, CEO of the IES.
“However, not everyone was able to use the period to replot a career path, strengthen skills and improve work skills. This data sharpens the importance of strengthening work skills, especially digital skills, to enable a return to the labor market with opportunities for promotion and job mobility in the labor market,” he added.
Graur called on job seekers to look into the variety of employment service programs available.