More than 60% loss of jobs in Gaza as war intensified
In the face of thousands of deaths and injuries, the economic sector is also feeling the pain In Gaza. More and more people are getting displayed from their homes. The infrastructure is badly disturbed. While the job opportunities are also becoming insufficient.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations organization, the loss of jobs has reached 61% in Gaza. 61% corresponds to 182,000 lost jobs in person in Gaza. Conversely, the West Bank, which Is not directly involved in the war, has also felt the severe implications. On the West Bank, almost 208,000 people lost their jobs. At the same time, 390,000 total loss of jobs in both areas resulted in a $16 million daily income loss.
Ruba Jaradat, the ILO’s Regional Director for the Arab States, said, “Our initial assessment of the repercussions of the tragic current crisis on the Palestinian labor market have yielded extremely worrying results, which will only worsen if the conflict continues.”
“reverberations that will be felt for many years to come”
She further said, “The ongoing hostilities not only represent an enormous humanitarian crisis in terms of loss of lives and basic human needs, but they also represent a social and economic crisis which has caused vast damage to jobs and businesses, with reverberations that will be felt for many years to come.”
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While addressing the interventions made by the United Nations to facilitate the people of Gaza, she said, “We are working tirelessly with government, worker and employer partners, other UN agencies, and humanitarian actors to provide immediate assistance to impacted workers and businesses. We will also support them in the longer term towards collecting vital labor market information and recovering jobs and enterprises, combined with social protection initiatives, to the utmost extent of our mandate.”
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ILO is already working on three-phase response programs to help the unemployment-hit population in Gaza. The first phase entails immediate help. The second phase is a review phase, data collection, and impact analysis. The third phase is a recovery phase, creating job opportunities.
The situation in Gaza was not very fascinating even before the war, as its unemployment rate stood at 46.4%, one of the highest in the world.