The ongoing coronavirus crisis and the unprecedented steps that put Israel on a de facto lockdown has ground the economy to a halt and brought Israeli unemployment figures to a record high.
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The Israeli government's chief labor agency said on Monday that in the wake of the newly announced measures aimed at containing the COVID-19 outbreak, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits has skyrocketed: So far this month some 572,000 new applications have been filed.
The overall unemployment level in Israel as of Monday is 17.6% of the workforce – an all-time high.
Despite this surge, many of those seeking benefits are still in fact employed by their organization but have been forced to take unpaid leave. The government has already said that it would make sure to mitigate the impact on those workers, including through unemployment benefits.
Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, Israel's unemployment stood at 3.4%. The new figures mean that among Israelis comprising the workforce, about a third of those between 18-34 are unemployed.
