The International Labor Organization said on Friday that the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip has reached about 80% since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza in October, which raises the average unemployment across the Palestinian territories to more than 50%.
The United Nations organization stated, in its fourth assessment of the impact of the war on employment, that the unemployment rate reached 79.1% in the Gaza Strip, and about 32% in the West Bank, bringing the total rate to 50.8%.
“This excludes Palestinians who have lost hope of finding a job,” said Ruba Jaradat, the organization’s regional director for Arab countries, adding, “The situation is much worse.”
Earlier, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said in a statement that, in light of the ongoing Israeli aggression against Gaza, and the resulting cessation of the economy in the besieged Strip for an unknown period, talk about employment characteristics has become unrealistic.
Ola Awad, head of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, said, “With the beginning of the aggression on the Gaza Strip, unemployment rates jumped to unprecedented levels, and estimates indicate that at least 200,000 jobs were lost during the first three months of the aggression.”
She also said that most of the concepts and terminology related to measuring the characteristics of the workforce are no longer realistic and do not apply to Gaza, as the highest priority for the individual in the Strip has become centered on providing shelter, food, and drink, and the search for security.
While Aya Jaafar, an expert at the International Labor Organization, confirmed that about 25% of the martyrs in the Gaza Strip were men of working age, and this means a loss of skills in all sectors that will be greatly affected in the future.
The expert pointed out that the Gaza Strip operates at about 14% of its production capacity during the war, with work continuing in some vital sectors during the war, including the health sector and some bakeries and stores that sell basic materials.
She warned that families who lost their breadwinners may resort to other means to earn a living, including the spread of child labor.
Israel continues its devastating war on the Gaza Strip for the ninth month in a row, causing comprehensive destruction in all aspects of life there.
The Gaza Ministry of Health says that more than 36,500 people have been martyred since then in the Strip, which has a population of 2.3 million.
Jaradat said, “Imagine, with this very high level of unemployment, people will not be able to secure food for themselves and their families.”
She added, “This also affects their health. Even if they have money, there are no hospitals that can handle the catastrophic situation there.”
In terms of economic data, the real GDP has shrunk by about 33% in the Palestinian territories since the beginning of the war.
The contraction is estimated at 83.5% in the Gaza Strip, and 22.7% in the West Bank, according to data published by the International Labor Organization.