With 25% chance of reentering the job market, Israelis might end up ‘lost’

“The government should have taken young people into consideration and offer them more help.”

By HAGAY HACOHEN
Finding a job in Israel in challenging times (photo credit: PIXABAY)
Finding a job in Israel in challenging times
(photo credit: PIXABAY)
Israelis placed on unpaid leave since the novel coronavirus crisis started have a 25% chance of returning to work, according to the Employment Service, News 13 reported Sunday.
The unemployment rate will be 12%, or some 500,000 workers, at the end of the year, the Employment Service predicted.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Israel Katz vowed to offer unemployment benefits until June 2021 or as long as the unemployment rate, as calculated by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), is 10% or more.
This policy primarily helps the aviation and tourism industries, which were most affected by COVID-19. It also helps people who prefer to be unemployed until an offer comes along.
Collecting benefits and earning money in cash for odd jobs has become a preferred route for many Israelis. Others opt to collect benefits and stay home, taking care of their children or elderly parents.
David, 38, an immigrant from Portugal who is currently out of work, said he feels the slump.
“Before COVID-19, I had two and three job interviews per day,” he said Monday. “Now, I have one interview per week. But when I was in Portugal in 2012, I had two job interviews in two years.”
Israelis have no idea what they are talking about when they speak about “a lost generation,” David said.
“It was like at a nightclub when they put on the lights and ask people to go home,” he said. “Portugal collapsed; Greece collapsed. All the people I grew up with were gone. The prime minister at the time, Pedro Passos Coelho, told the nation that people who are looking for work should emigrate. The situation here is nothing like it.”
He said he was concerned that just as Europe gets a cold when the US coughs, Israel expects more trouble because it is so closely aligned with the US economy.
“But even if Israel’s economy will tank, this country isn’t going to collapse,” he said. “I just don’t see it happening.”
According to Israel Democracy Institute researcher Yarden Kedar, “A ‘lost generation’ is a very dramatic term. Whom does it include? From our data, from the age of 25 and upward, the economic blow starts to decline.”
The government made a mistake when it decided to give grants to everybody in the “Check for Every Citizen” plan, he said.
“Half of Israel did not report a decline in income, so by simply giving all the money to the half that did suffer a loss of income, you could have gotten more consumption out of this aid program,” Kedar said.
“The government should have taken young people into consideration and offer them more help,” he said. Yet, “I would not talk about a lost generation just yet.”
Gal Golan of the Mordechai Golan apiary said: “We are now before Rosh Hashanah, when people usually buy a lot of honey. I should be so busy I can’t even talk with you. But we’re having this talk now because, sadly, I’m not as busy.”
One out of every three of his friends is facing hardships because of the crisis, he said, adding: “Either they live off their savings, or their parents help them out, or they take loans to stay afloat.”
“When people say we are a lost generation, it can mean so many things,” Golan said. “It could be about education or people who don’t have enough food to eat. It could be that this entire generation of people is renting and needs to move every two years, never reaching a state of stability.”
He received some help from the state, he said, but it took the money back in forms of taxes, “so my pocket is empty.”
“I recently paid NIS 100 to the Tax Authority for honey sales,” Golan said. “Take a moment and think what that means.”


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