Middle-East

Unemployment crisis in Gaza worsens amid Israel's military operations - ILO

People stand next to a house damaged in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 3, 2024. (Photo: Reuters/Hatem Khaled)

By Alfred Onyango | Monday, June 10, 2024

"This compounds the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and further endangers their safety and wellbeing,” said ILO Regional Director for Arab States Ruba Jaradat.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), in its latest June 2024 assessment report, says that the eight months of the war in the Gaza Strip have catapulted unemployment and caused a sharp decline in GDP in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

In coordination with the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the ILO's new data and analysis indicate that the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip has reached a staggering 79.1 per cent and 32 per cent in the West Bank since the war began in October 2023.

"These figures bring the average unemployment rate to 50.8 per cent across the two areas of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Unemployment rates and figures, however, do not account for those who have left the labour force altogether as job prospects proved unattainable. The actual number of those who have lost their jobs is therefore even higher than what the unemployment figures suggest," ILO says in its June 7 bulletin.

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Additionally, real GDP has contracted by an astounding 83.5 per cent in the Gaza Strip and by 22.7 in the West Bank over the past eight months. Hence, the real GDP of the entire OPT has shrunk by an average of 32.8 per cent.

The breakdown

ILO stated that nearly all private sector establishments have either completely ceased or significantly reduced production in the Gaza Strip, with the sector losing 85.8 per cent of its production value—equivalent to nearly Sh105 billion (USD810 million)—during the first four months of the war.

Private sectors in the West Bank have suffered a 27 per cent reduction in production value equivalent to approximately Sh195 billion (USD1.5 billion) in the same four months that were analysed.

"This translates into daily private sector production losses equivalent to approximately Sh2.4 billion (USD19 million) across the entire OPT during the first four months of the conflict," the report reads.

The war in Gaza has also claimed human lives and worsened the humanitarian situation in the region which has created a toll on economic activities and livelihoods.

"This compounds the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and further endangers their safety and wellbeing,” said ILO Regional Director for Arab States Ruba Jaradat.

“Restoring people’s livelihoods and creating decent jobs is vital to enabling Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to recover from the horrors the war has inflicted on them,” Ruba added.

The ILO Regional Director for Arab States further emphasised that recovery work must take place alongside the ongoing humanitarian response, and the ILO and its constituents and partners are implementing an Emergency Response Plan.

The fourth bulletin further offers projections on the impact of the war on the OPT economy and labour market for the entire year of 2024. If the war was to end in August 2024 and economic and labour market recovery efforts follow, then the annual unemployment rate for 2024 is expected to average 47.1 per cent.