Jobless Claims Drop Sharply After Operation “Roar of the Lion”

Israel’s Employment Service said that in the past two months about 216,000 Israelis returned to work, and by the end of May the number of job seekers had fallen to roughly 180,000. The agency published the figures on Sunday, saying the labor market had rebounded as the Israeli economy returned to full activity after Operation Roar of the Lion.

The decline was recorded in every city with more than 40,000 residents, with an average drop of about 43%. However, Arab and peripheral cities saw smaller decreases. Rahat and Umm al-Fahm again topped the list of cities with the highest job-seeker rates, while Bnei Brak posted a particularly low rate of 2.3%, similar to stronger cities such as Kfar Saba, Ra’anana and Ramat HaSharon.

By population group, the sharpest improvements were among women, young people and Haredim. The biggest declines were in jobs involving public gatherings and outdoor work, institutions, trade and local services, while occupations that can be done remotely, such as doctors and tech workers, saw only minimal change.

Employment Service Director General Inbal Mashash said, “The Israeli labor market is once again proving that it knows how to recover from crises. Returning to routine is not the end, it is the starting point. Now is the time to prepare the Israeli labor market for the era of artificial intelligence, and to ensure that reserve soldiers and their families do not pay an employment price for serving all of us.”