Israel

1.Series

Title:

Employment Service data on the labour market.

Starting year:

1960's.

2.Agency making the initial registrations of unemployed persons

Name of the agency:

Employment Service.

Type of agency:

Corporation under the general supervision of a national authority.

Name of the national authority:

Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

Location of the local offices making the registrations:

Approximately 100 branches dispersed throughout the country in the main population centres.

Type of services provided/administered by the agency:

  • Assisting job-seekers to find jobs;
  • Assisting job-seekers to establish their own business;
  • Assisting employers to find workers;
  • Vocational guidance;
  • Job-related training (together with the Ministry of Labour and Social affairs);
  • Paying unemployment compensation (in cooperation with the National Insurance Institute);
  • Other: permits for and allocation of foreign workers; supervision of employment of Palestinian workers and execution of payments to these workers; auditing payments made to foreign workers.

    Percentage of job-seekers seeking work through the agency:

    7%.

    3.The following information is registered about a person:

  • Name;
  • Sex;
  • Social security number (or similar identification number also used by other agencies);
  • Address of usual residence;
  • Date of birth;
  • Educational attainment, with nine categories distinguished. Links to ISCED have been established;
  • Current/past activity status, with 16 categories distinguished;
  • Type of work (occupation) of past or present job with thousands of occupations distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have been established (minor groups level);
  • Type of work (occupation) of job sought, with thousands of occupations distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have been established (minor groups level);
  • Name and address of present or previous employer or work place;
  • Type of business (industry) of present/previous employer/workplace. Links to ISIC, rev.3 have been established (class level);
  • Previous registrations with the agency/service;
  • Other: referrals to job vacancies; refusals of job offers.

    4.Criteria used for inclusion of a person in the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

  • Being without work (R) and (S);
  • Seeking work (R) and (S);
  • Availability for work (R) and (S);
  • Age (lower limit: 15 years; upper limit: 65 years) (R) and (S);
  • Citizenship (R) and (S);
  • Previously employed (R) and (S);
  • Desired duration of employment and/or number of hours of work sought (R) and (S);

    5.Criteria used for exclusion of a person from the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

  • Death (R) and (S);
  • Taking up residency abroad (R) and (S).

    6.Definition of unemployed persons used for the statistics

    A job-seeker who is registered with at least one day of unemployment in the month of the report.

    7.Updating of the registers

    The registers are updated monthly.

    8.Unemployment rates

    Statistics from the registers are used to obtain unemployment rates.

    The source of data on employed persons who are part of the denominator of the unemployment rates is the Estimates of the total civilian labour force.

    Definition of employed persons for this purpose:

    According to the definition of the Labour Force Survey: those employed for at least one hour at any job during the determinant week.

    9.Type of statistics of unemployed persons produced

    Series:

    Unemployed persons.

    Reference period:

    Month.

    Frequency of production:

    Monthly.

    Descriptive variables used:

  • Sex;
  • Age;
  • Educational level;
  • Occupation;
  • Industry;
  • Geographic characteristics;
  • Duration of unemployment.

    Form of publication:

    On paper, for general audience;

    Agency responsible for publication:

    Employment Service.

    Title and periodicity of the publication:

    Employment Service Data on the Labour Market, monthly.

    10.Methodological information about the statistics

    Form of release:

    Not released, available for internal use only.

    Agency responsible:

    The Employment Service.

    11.Comparisons with unemployment statistics from other sources

    Comparisons have been made with unemployment statistics from the Labour Force Survey.

    Frequency of the comparisons:

    Regularly when the statistics are published.

    Publication of the methodology/results of the comparisons:

    The monthly Employment Service Data on the Labour Market shows (national) unemployment rates from the Labour Force Survey and those obtained by the Employment Service (by area for those unemployed 6 days or more and for those unemployed 20 days or more). Comparisons are difficult because of differences in the sources regarding definitions of unemployment and because the Employment Service only counts those unemployed who register at its bureaux. The Employment Service methodology appears in the monthly publication.

    12.Major changes since the start of the statistics

    Major changes in legislation, capacity of the agency and/or administrative procedures took place in:
  • 1972: The enactment of the Unemployment Insurance Law which required unemployed persons applying for benefits under the law to register for work with the Employment Service caused an increase in unemployed in Employment Service statistics;
  • 1984: The enactment of the Income Maintenance Law under which the Employment Service is responsible for administering the employment test for eligibility for benefits under the law resulted in a rise in the number of unemployed registered with the Service. In 1985 the number of adult job-seekers rose by 12%;
  • 1989-90: The cancellation of compulsory resort to the Employment Service by employers seeking workers reduced by approximately 50% the number of employer applications to the Service for workers.