Two sobering sets of statistics released here over the weekend showed a widening gap between Western and Oriental Jews in higher education and an unemployment rate among new immigrants four times higher than the national average.
Statistics from the Education Ministry indicated that while the general level of education in the country is rising, only 12.8 percent of Israelis from Oriental families received a higher education compared to 43.7 percent from Western families. Yosef Bashi, the Ministry’s chief statistician, said the gap will narrow only when the government gives the problem high priority. At the present time, it is growing, he said.
Meanwhile, a Histadrut survey of 18 areas with high immigrant populations showed that 32 percent of people who immigrated to Israel during 1984-85 are unemployed. The survey covered 3,550 wage-earners.
Yitzhak Barkai, chairman of Histadrut’s absorption department, said the highest levels of immigrant unemployment were recorded in Afula (64 percent); Carmiel (63 percent); Jerusalem (48 percent); Beersheba (47 percent) and Kfar Saba (40 percent).
Immigrant unemployment was only marginal in the central region, the Dan area, Raanana, Herzliya, Rehovot and the Arad district of the Negev.
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