For the first time since the current economic crisis began in the second half of 2008, the Israel National Employment Service (INES) is reporting a shift to a positive employment trend. In May, there was a 1.5% drop in the number of jobseekers, compared with April.
In all, there were 230,000 registered jobseekers, compared with 234,000 in April.
Another positive figure, although not seasonally adjusted, is that 14,500 employees were laid off in May, compared with a monthly average of 18,300 between November, 2008, and March.
There was a big drop of 48% in layoffs of employees with college degrees. In May, 2,010 were laid off, while in March 3,892 were laid off.
Employment Service director general Yossi Farhi said this morning, "It can be cautiously presumed that we are at the beginning of a trend of fewer new people joining, which stems mainly from fewer employee layoffs."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 25, 2009
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