One in Five Unemployed Israelis Holds a University Degree
The proportion of unemployed individuals with academic degrees in Israel has significantly increased, reaching 20.5% in August 2026, up from 14% four years prior. This trend has been particularly noticeable in the last four months. A contributing factor cited is the rising unemployment among software developers and system analysts, with the number of job seekers in this field growing by 6.4% from June to August.
Job seekers from the highest socioeconomic clusters (8-10) now represent 20.6% of the unemployed, an increase from 16.8% in August 2023. Conversely, the share of job seekers from the lowest socioeconomic clusters (1-3) has decreased from 41.2% to 37% over the same period.
This rise in educated unemployment occurs despite a record low overall unemployment rate of around 3% and a labor force participation rate of 62.2%.
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