Israel’s unemployment rate rose sharply over the first two months of this year, reaching a two-and-a-half year high of around 8 percent of the work force.
The last time unemployment peaked at this level was in June 1986.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefits, seasonally adjusted, reached 33,000 on average for the first two months of 1989, up from the 32,400 monthly average for the last quarter of 1988.
The Central Bureau of Statistics reported Sunday that industrial output dropped by 3 percent in 1988, while the number of workers employed in industry fell by 10,000 or 3.5 percent.
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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.
