The number of job-seekers registered with the Government Employment Service in February rose by 1.9 percent on the figure for December 2000, to 171,800, after adjusting for seasonal factors, the service reported yesterday.

No statistics were published in January, as Employment Service offices were closed for much of the month due to labor sanctions.

The most surprising increase in the unemployment rolls was among university graduates, where the number of job-seekers jumped 6.5 percent between December and February, to 18,600. This is the first time in three years that analysis of the trend (as opposed to the figure for a single month) has revealed unemployment among college graduates to be on the rise.

Kafr Manda retained its usual place as the town with the highest jobless rate last month, but unemployment in the town hit its highest level in years: a whopping 21.4 percent. In total, 26 towns had an unemployment rate of over 10 percent in February, compared to 21 such towns in December. Of those reported this month, 23 are Arab towns.

Labor Minister Shlomo Benizri attributed the rise in unemployment to three factors: the economic slowdown, the influx of foreign workers and layoffs in high-tech industries.

Benizri said he will work to reduce the number of employment visas issued to foreign workers. The Employment Service issued 91,200 such visas to foreign workers last month, up from 83,400 in December. Benizri will devote even greater efforts to reducing the number of foreign workers who are here illegally, he pledged.

Benizri noted that the recent dismissal of thousands of high-tech workers was, "a phenomenon that no one foresaw." Close to 1,000 university graduates are now enrolled in a ministry-sponsored training course to prepare them for high-tech work, he said, but it is no longer clear that there will be jobs available for them when they finish.

Benny Fefferman, head of the ministry's Manpower Planning Authority, said he believes many of the graduates of the course will not find jobs, though there is still a market for experienced high-tech workers.

But most of the newly unemployed college graduates, Fefferman said, are people who have lost jobs in traditional industries and not high-tech.

Fefferman added that, in spite of the growth in unemployment, he was pleasantly surprised by the statistics, because given the economic slowdown and the security situation, he had expected an even greater increase.

© copyright 2001 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved

Nisan 5761 - April 2001