The Israeli economy is one of the most adaptable in the world to work from home, or telecommuting, a new report from the Labor and Welfare Ministry indicates. 

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According to the report, half of Israel's workforce, 47% of employees nationwide, can perform their jobs from home. When it comes to work from home potential, Israel is second only to Luxembourg and far ahead of the OECD average of 38% of the workforce. 

Israel's high telecommuting potential is the result of the large number of employees in the education and technology sectors, both of which can be adapted to remote work. 

However, despite the considerable potential for remote work in Israel, only 27% of employees actually worked from home during Israel's second lockdown from Sept.-Oct. 2020, the report stated.  

One possible explanation for the discrepancy between the percentage of Israeli workers who can telecommute and those who actually do could be that while 91% of secular Israelis have access to the Internet, only 76% of Arabs and 37% of Haredi Jews own computers and have Internet access.

Labor Ministry officials warned that if legislation does not change to reflect the dramatic changes that have occurred in the labor market, the entire national economy, employers, and employees alike could suffer for it. 

One of the issues cited in the report is the length of the average work day in Israel. Current law allows employees to work 12 hours a day, including overtime, which is significantly higher than the OECD average. Some 38% of respondents said they often work more, despite it being illegal. 

The survey also revealed that the higher the salary, the more likely an employee was to work exceed the legal number of working hours. Some 43% of Israelis who earned more than 18,000 shekels ($5,500) reported working more hours than allowed, while only 11% of Israelis who earned a below-average salary reported the same. 

The coronavirus pandemic reinforced the need to adjust labor law, as employers and workers were forced to change working hours to adapt to safety and lockdown restrictions. 

The report also discovered a correlation between unemployment rates and level of education. Unemployment rates were lowest among Israelis with an academic degree: 10% of college-educated applied for unemployment benefits during the first lockdown and 14% during the second one. 

Almost twice as many Israelis with only a yeshiva education applied for the benefits, namely 19%. Israelis with an academic degree were more likely to be assigned "essential worker" status. 

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Tel Aviv-based Riverside.fm, the first video podcasting platform, has emerged from stealth mode with $2.5 million in funding.

The company says its solution is the only platform in the market that enables local recording of lossless audio and 4K video tracks independent of a podcaster's internet connection speed, allowing anyone to record studio-quality interviews without loss of recording quality.

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CEO and co-founder of Riverside.fm Nadav Keyson noted that in the past decade, "podcasting has gone from a niche hobby to a billion-dollar industry, and the pandemic is pushing this growth to new heights."

"People at home are hungrier than ever for content, and creators and enterprises are rushing to deliver," Keyson said.

Co-founder Gideon Keyson said that since so many transitioned to working from home, there has been an increased demand for video podcasting, as seen in the appeal of the Zoom app.

However, he pointed out, "Professional podcasters need a lot more than just basic audio and video capabilities to produce compelling content. That's where Riverside.fm comes in."

Riverside.fm also allows users to download separate audio and video tracks in perfect sync; use the platform on any browser with no need to install special software; enjoy "lightning-fast uploads" that start when recording does and continue in the background; and automatically back up all recordings.

Silicon Valley investor Oren Zeev, who led the funding round, said, "Nadav and Gideon have created a product that is poised to revolutionize the way podcasters and media companies record video interviews."

According to Zeev, "The fact that, in under a year, they have created an entirely new paradigm for recording lossless audio and video, and landed customers like Hillary Clinton, Verizon Media and Spotify, is nothing short of impressive. I am thrilled to be an early investor and look forward to their explosive growth in the coming years."

Riverside.fm has been endorsed by none other than former US Vice President Hillary Clinton, who said, "Just imagine, we needed a recording platform that could help us make a podcast during a pandemic, and, boy, did they step up."

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Israel Hayom has learned that Facebook Israel has signed a deal to rent two additional floors in the central Tel Aviv tower where its offices are currently situated.

The deal is estimated to be worth NIS 750,000 ($220,000) a month and NIS 45 million  ($13 million) over five years.

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