151 companies have contacted the Ministry of the Economy and Industry Investment Promotion Center with requests for inclusion in the program for hiring workers from population groups with low labor force participation rates: haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) and Arabs.
Under the Investment Promotion Center program, a company that hires workers belonging to these sectors will be entitled to state aid in paying their salary for 30 months. The state is offering to pay for 27.5% of every such worker's monthly salary.
The program got underway a few months ago, and most of the requests submitted by companies to the Investment Center were examined in recent days. Investment Promotion Center director Nahum Itzkovich said that granting all of the requests submitted by companies under the program would require a budget allocation of NIS 146 million. Itzkovich added that the requests involved over 3,000 workers to be employed in 2,700 jobs. "We will not grant all the requests, because not all of them meet the threshold conditions established in the program, but the demand is still on an unprecedented scale for this employment track. We may need a budget supplement in order to meet the huge demand from companies for participation in the program," Itzkovich said.
The companies to receive a subsidy of almost a third of the salary of workers belonging to minorities will be selected soon, following a thorough examination of all the requests submitted. 60 of the requests, a large proportion of the total, came from companies in the Haifa and northern districts, with 28 requests coming from Beer Sheva and the south, 26 from Jerusalem, 29 from Tel Aviv, and eight from Judea and Samaria.
Itzkovich told "Globes" that the reason for the increase in the number of companies seeking to take part in the program was the addition of sectors such as insurance and hotels, which in the past hired workers from groups with low labor participation rates, but received no state benefits. According to Itzkovich, another reason for the great interest in the track among companies is the benefits being provided to companies hiring workers living in communities near the Gaza Strip because of the difficult security situation in this area and past cabinet decisions to grant benefits to people living there.
127 companies are offering new jobs to 134 workers from communities near the Gaza Strip. 387 new jobs are being offered to 439 haredi men, 462 new jobs are being offered to 542 haredi women, and 64 new jobs are being offered to 64 Bedouin.
Offers of 526 jobs for 562 Arab women and 788 jobs for 891 Arab men have accumulated at the Investment Promotion Center in recent months. Some of the offers submitted for the employment track were for part-time jobs from the target population groups, resulting in a discrepancy between the number of jobs and the number of workers likely to be hired in future workplaces.
At the same time, in recent days, the Investment Promotion Center approved NIS 5 million in grants for companies participating in programs that subsidize the hiring of workers with disabilities. 18 requests from companies were submitted to the Investment Promotion Center under this track, 14 of which met the threshold conditions established. The requests involved employment of 90 workers with an average of 58% time and a relatively high monthly salary of almost NIS 5,200. The jobs being offered to workers with disabilities are in the chemical, pharmaceutical, support center, clothing, electronic components, and communications services sectors.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 20, 2016
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