Unemployment in Israel rose to 8.3 percent of the work force during the first quarter of this year, a 46 percent increase over the same period in 1988, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported Monday.
The bureau said an average of 124,000 people were looking for work in the three-month period ending March 31.
More have joined the ranks of the unemployed in recent weeks, because large employers are dismissing workers with the onset of an economic recession.
But another reason for growing joblessness is the relatively large increase in the size of the work force. It increased by 3.7 percent over the last year, while the total population grew by only 1.9 percent. And the number of persons holding jobs rose by only 1.8 percent in the last year.
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