Israel’s Labor Minister, Golda Myerson, today outlined a six-point program designed to relieve the unemployment situation. At the same time, however, she warned that there was a good possibility that the number of jobless, already at a record high, may increase. The plan, which Mrs. Myerson presented to the Economic. Advisory Council, calls for:
1. Increasing investments in development of agriculture and the settlement of immigrants in agricultural areas, in conjunction with the expansion of areas under cultivation for citrus crops for export and vegetables for domestic use; 2. Expansion of the irrigation system; 3. Continuation of government investments in quarries; 4. Expansion of the program to develop the nation’s communications system; 5. Diversion of 35,000 families from immigrant work villages to agricultural settlements, and 6. Persuasion of the families of unemployed workers to leave the cities and settle in rural areas.
Dr. Peretz Naphtali, Minister of Agriculture, who presided over the Economic Advisory Council session, emphasized that the government’s goal in solving the problem of the jobless was not only to return them to full employment, but to turn them to productive work and thereby increase efficiency in industry.
The Knesset Economic Committee today discussed the new economic policy recently inaugurated by the Minister of Trade and Industry, one of whose first moves was to free virtually all goods from government control. Minister Peretz Bernstein appeared before the committee to outline his policy.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
