Jobless rate is 27.9% in Gaza and 16.8% in West Bank in Q2

Gaza Strips’ unemployment rate is 27.9% and West Bank’s 16.8% in the second quarter of 2013, according to labour work force data issued Thursday by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. As defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the number unemployed people was about 234,000 in the second quarter of 2013 – 126,000 in the West Bank and 108,000 in Gaza Strip. The unemployment rate for men in Palestine is 17.6% while for females it is 33.6%. The total number of people, 15 years and above, in Palestine’s work force is 1.133 Million or 43% in the second quarter of 2013. This figures includes 746,000 workers in the West Bank and 387,000 in Gaza Strip, the bureau report said. The highest rate of unemployment rate in Q2 2013 was 37.2% among youth aged between 20 to 24 years. The unemployment rate among females with 13 years of schooling or more was 45.2%. The highest unemployment rate in the West Bank governorates was in Hebron with 22.1%. In Gaza Strip, the highest unemployment rate was in Rafah with 32.0%. According to the relaxed definition of unemployment rate in Palestine, The unemployment rate decreased from 27.5% in the first quarter of 2013 to 24.5% in the second quarter 2013, if the measure of yardstick was the relaxed definition of unemployment rate in Palestine. The services sector was the biggest employer in the local market with 33.1% in the West Bank and 50.2% in Gaza Strip. The public sector employed 22.5% of those in employment: 36.2% in Gaza Strip and 16.4% in the West Bank. The average weekly hours worked by waged employees in the West Bank was 43.5 per week in the first quarter compared with 44.2 in the second quarter 2013, the bureau said.