Breaking Update
Israel Saw Drop in Employment Rate, Increase in Absences After October 7
Israel's employment rate fell post-Oct 7 as war impacted labor, with PA worker jobs plummeting and absences soaring to 3.4% of employed.
Jerusalem, 28 January, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released its report on Israel’s population after the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023 – “A socio-economic picture of Israel and the Gaza-Lebanon border, 2024: Data from the Face of Society Report No. 16.” Here is the significant data related to the labor market.
The number of salaried jobs for Palestinian Authority workers remained relatively stable until the third quarter of 2023 (128,100). Due to the outbreak of the war, the number of jobs fell sharply in the fourth quarter, reaching the lowest level in the last decade (41,200).
In contrast, the trend is the opposite in salaried positions for workers from abroad – in the fourth quarter of 2023, their number was 132,300, and by the fourth quarter of 2024, it had risen to 165,200.
The employment rate among those aged 15 and over fell from 61.3% in 2023 to 60.8% in 2024. Similarly, in localities up to 5 km from the Lebanese border, the rate fell from 63.0% in 2023 to 58.2% in 2024, and in the first quarter of 2025 (58.5%) it was similar to 2024. In localities adjacent to the fence on the Gaza border, a decrease was recorded from 74.2% in 2023 to 67.1% in 2024, and in the first quarter of 2025 there was a significant recovery (73.1%).
In the fourth quarter of 2023, with the outbreak of the war, there was a significant increase in the percentage of those absent from work due to reserve service, reaching 3.4% of all employed persons (147,300). As the war continued, the percentage decreased, and in the first quarter of 2025 it reached 0.5% of all employed persons (21,400).
