Israel has a problem finding jobs for highly educated professionals, including a large number of the immigrants now arriving from the Soviet Union.
The situation has David Mena, director general of the government’s Employment. Service, writing to universities and government agencies to question the wisdom of educating more students in professions where no jobs are available.
There are 70 unemployed mathematicians and statisticians for every job opening and 61 candidates for each job in physics, according to Mena.
Conditions are better in the social sciences and humanities, where the ratio of job applicants to jobs is 15-1.
According to Mena, the overall number of unemployed college graduates rose from 6,117 in October 1988 to 6,457 in October 1989. But the available jobs also increased, so the ratio of applicants to jobs remained a steady 6-1.
Mena has asked the Finance Ministry to consider reducing subsidies to universities that educate students in already overcrowded fields.
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.
