According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), unemployment in the Gaza Strip has hit a “staggering” 79.1 percent since Israel launched its military onslaught on the territory in October last year.
In its latest assessment of the impact of the war on employment, the ILO also stated that joblessness in the occupied West Bank, which has also been hit by the crisis, had also reached nearly 32 percent.
This brings the average unemployment rate across the occupied Palestinian territory to 50.8 percent.
The figures, however, do not include those who have exited the labour force altogether amid worsening job prospects, the ILO said, warning that the actual numbers were higher.
“This excludes Palestinians who have given up on finding a job,” Ruba Jaradat, ILO Regional Director for Arab States, said, adding, “The situation is much worse.”
Additionally, real GDP has contracted by an astounding 83.5 per cent in the Gaza Strip over the past eight months, and real GDP of the entire Occupied Palestinian territory has shrunk by an average of 32.8 per cent.
“Imagine with this very high level of unemployment, people will not be able to secure food for themselves and for their families,” Jaradat said.
“This is also impacting their health … Even if they have money, there are no hospitals that can accommodate the catastrophic situation there,” Jaradat added.
In the West Bank, the GDP drop was 22.7 percent, the ILO data showed.
“In the occupied Palestinian territory and particularly in the West Bank, the reduction in incomes has pushed many families into severe poverty,” Jaradat said.
“Our new bulletin shows that the grim toll the war in the Gaza Strip has taken on human lives, and the desperate humanitarian situation it has caused, are accompanied by widespread devastation of 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.”
Ruba Jaradat
Private Sector Not Spared
Moreover, the latest assessment disclosed that the severe economic crisis now affecting the Occupied Palestinian Territory has particularly impacted the private sector.
It stated that in the Gaza Strip, almost all private sector establishments have either completely ceased or significantly reduced production, with the sector losing 85.8 per cent of its production value – equivalent to USD $810 million – during the first four months of the war.
In the West Bank, the private sector suffered a 27 per cent reduction in production value equivalent to USD $1.5 billion during the same period.
This translates into daily private sector production losses equivalent to USD $19 million across the entire OPT during the first four months of the conflict.
“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,” Jaradat said.
“This recovery work must take place alongside the ongoing humanitarian response, and the ILO and its constituents and partners are implementing an Emergency Response Plan to this end,” she added.
The ILO report offered projections on the impact of the war on the OPT economy and labour market for the entire year of 2024.
It stated that 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.
The projections also suggested that, under such a scenario, real GDP would plummet by 16.1 per cent and real per capita income by 18.0 per cent in 2024 in comparison to 2023.
These figures would represent the most pronounced decline in growth rates for both indicators in over two decades.
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