Job vacancies up in 2nd quarter as dismissals rise 9%

The number of seasonally adjusted job vacancies rose 1.4 percent in the second quarter of the year, the Economy and Trade Ministry announced Sunday, with a daily average of 64.2 thousand open jobs.

The rise was due, in part, to increasing dismissals, which rose 9% from 25.9 thousand in the previous quarter to 28.2 thousand. Employers found it more difficult to fill positions, the ministry said, as it took them an average of a week longer to fill openings than in the previous quarter. The number of jobs filled fell 2%, to 82.5 thousand per month.

In a related field, the Small and Medium Business Agency within the ministry published its first annual report on Sunday, and found that small businesses pay a higher risk premium on bank loans, despite the fact that mediumsized businesses (employing 20-99 people) were the less stable than small and large ones.

The report found that in comparison to the OECD, Israel had relatively fewer employees in the small and medium sectors. While only 57% of Israelis were employed by businesses with fewer than 250 workers, the OECD average was 67%.

Similarly, the small and medium businesses in Israel accounted for 43% of output in the business sector. Of that, businesses with 11-50 people accounted for 16% of output, while the remaining 27% came from the smaller businesses.