Israel's unemployment exceeds 1 mln amid COVID-19 outbreak

Source: Xinhua | 2020-04-02

The total number of unemployed people in Israel exceeded 1 million, the Israel Employment Service announced Wednesday.

According to the bureau, 843,945 Israelis have applied for unemployment benefits since March 1, bringing the total number of unemployed people in the country to 1,004,316.

Israel's unemployment rate has jumped from 4 percent to 24.1 percent since the beginning of March, it added.

Israel recently announced an 80-billion-new-shekel (about 22.49 billion U.S. dollars) emergency plan to aid the national economy, of which 5.6 billion dollars will be allocated for unemployment benefits, as well as grants to those whose businesses were affected by COVID-19.