OECD praises Israel for improving Arab employment rate
Top Economy Ministry official to ‘Post’: We’re working to integrate minorities in high-wage jobs
An OECD report praises Israel in its efforts to deal with Israeli-Arab unemployment while recommending ways to better integrate them into the workforce.
The report, produced in cooperation with the deputy-director for employment at the Economy Ministry and the Economic Development Authority for the Minority Sector in the Prime Minister’s Office and released last week, notes that Israel has weathered the world financial crisis quite well, sustaining a low unemployment rate. It notes, however, that improvements can still be made in the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors. In particular, the report said the Arab population suffers from a lack of skills and that the government should invest more in professional training and career guidance.
The labor force participation rate in the Arab sector is only 52 percent compared to 66% for the general population. The rate of participation among Arab women is only 28%, and 50% of Israeli Arabs live below the poverty line.
“The Economy Ministry has been leading an employment revolution in recent years that encourages the integration of the Arab sector in high-quality employment in the labor market,” said Ella Eyal Bar-David, an employment infrastructure coordinator for the Arab sector at the Economy Ministry. “There are already clear results, particularly regarding the employment of women and academics. The Economy Ministry has initiated a number of projects aimed at increasing employment, including establishing the Rayan employment centers in Arab communities, encouraging employers to integrate Arabs in hi-tech, [and] building day care centers,” she added.
“We are delighted to see that the OECD recognizes and appreciates the government efforts and notes how the Economy Ministry has been working hard to promote employment in Arab society.”
Bar-David told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that since most of the population is concentrated in the periphery, the lack of public transportation is a major obstacle. Asked about cultural barriers for women in the Arab sector, she replied that there is a preference “to work in the community as part of the extended family.” She also noted that one of the tasks of her division is to “integrate minorities in high-wage jobs and career advancement.”
For example, she said, there exists a program to bring 1,000 Arabs to the hi-tech industry within three years. Arab graduates of these programs successfully integrate into the Israeli workforce and are an example for others, she added.
In reaction to the report, Economy Minister and Shas chairman Arye Deri said, “inclusion of the ultra-Orthodox and Arabs in the labor market is at the top of the agenda of the Economy Ministry.”
“This has tremendous significance since enhancing employment opportunities levers an increase in growth and strengthening the economy, as well as, of course, strengthening and empowering the employees in the ultra- Orthodox and Arab societies,” he said.
The OECD looked at Israeli employment centers in the Arab and Beduin sectors, which were established in recent years by the Economy Ministry in cooperation with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s Tevet Employment Initiative and the Prime Minister’s Office, noting their important role in employment advancement.
The OECD recommendations include strengthening the connection between the Arab education system and the labor market, encouraging entrepreneurship and investment incentives and seeking to reduce employment gaps between the Arab and Jewish sectors. Other recommendations call for more government cooperation with local leadership, more research into the results of those that found employment and better training in English language skills. In addition, it said, more emphasis should be placed on job quality over quantity.
The Economy Ministry has established 21 employment centers for the Arab sector in recent years in cooperation with JDC-Tevet and the Prime Minister’s Office. These centers provide employment guidance and consultation services, which include training and help with completing high school and higher education.
The frustrating cycle that many graduates in the Beduin sector face is best summed up by Ella Eyal Bar David, an employment and infrastructure project manager at the Economy Ministry who works with Beduin clients.
“People who have graduated and don’t find work [find it] very frustrating, because they went and studied and invested thousands of shekels in those studies, and then after they finish their degree they go and work in a gas station or something, and not in their profession,” said Bar David, last week as she showed a group of visitors around the Rayan South employment center in Rahat, south of Beersheba.
Mahmud Alamour, the director of the center backed up Bar David’s statement, adding “We are living on the periphery with limited resources, especially public transportation, infrastructure and also job opportunities.”
The center is one of 21 the Economy Ministry established for the Arab sector in recent years in cooperation with Joint Distribution Committee’s Tevet Employment Initiative and the Prime Minister’s Office.
The centers serve as onestop shops for the unemployed, training and guiding them regarding suitable employment.
Alamour, speaking to journalists on a press tour last week organized by the Economy Ministry, expressed his concerns relating to the integration of Beduin women into the workforce.
“Most of the Beduin have limited infrastructure with no industrial areas or means for economic development,” Alamour said. They face formidable barrier in getting jobs, he added.
“The education system in the Beduin community is very weak, for example most of the students who finish high school cannot speak Hebrew and it’s very difficult for them to then start to work in the Israeli labor force,” Alamour said.
Bar David expanded on Alamour’s point, explaining that this linguistic divide creates a gap between the level of Beduin’s education and their employment.
“Today’s labor market demands very high technical skills, you have to know Hebrew very well, you need to speak English very well, you need to know math,” she said. “We can see that with Arab women this barrier is even higher.”
A major goal of the Economy Ministry is increasing the employment rate, particularly among groups with low participation in the labor market. Bar David explained that it is not only the undereducated who have difficulty getting jobs, and there is potential for social rifts to develop where opportunity is not present.
“This is one of the things that the Rayan center is working toward – to help them find work in their profession,” she said.
Helping Beduin find employment requires a grassroots approach, Bar David emphasized.
“If you really want to work with the community it’s important to have leaders from the community on staff. All of them [the staff] have bachelor’s degrees, education and they know the families, they know the heads of the families and they are arranging community fairs to talk about employment,” she said.
The Rahat center, which opened in late 2012, has a heavy caseload of clients. Alamour said that it takes a lot of work from both the staff and the community to engage job seekers.
“The situation now is that the people have no hope and no future. They don’t believe in themselves and it takes a lot of energy to convince the people that they can improve their situation and that the government actually wants to help,” he said.
At the Bezeq customer service center in Hura, a Beduin town northeast of Beersheba, women from the community have entered the labor force thanks to a creative solution to cultural barriers that prevent travel to and from work.
The service center has been located in a mosque for the past four years; the center’s director, Motti Vaknin, said this was key to getting women to work there.
“You need to know the culture of the Beduin. The women now feel safe to come to a place which gives them the atmosphere that they require to get permission from their husband or other people in the home to come to work,” he said.
The cooperation between the government and community has afforded the women of Hura the opportunity to work, Vaknin said. Thirty women work at the center and more are being recruited.
“This place is very unique, there is no other place in the world where you can put a call center inside a mosque,” he said. “It gives the women the opportunity to have success and to be the first [in their families] to involve themselves in the modern world.”
Team leader Wafa has been working at the Bezeq center for three- and- a- half years and said the location within a mosque has made work a possibility for her and increased the living standard for her entire family.
“When the workplace came to me, it’s completely different and much easier for me. The people are much more accepting of me and my work because I’m working in a mosque,” she said.
“Even when I wanted to work in other places, my family recommended to me to work here, in our community. If I were to work in another place I wouldn’t have the same working conditions as here at Bezeq.”
Wafa met barriers to employment including transportation difficulties and educational deficits similar to those faced by her counterparts in other communities and parts of the country.
She offered advice to companies and government entities wishing to facilitate the movement of Beduin women into the workforce.
“Bring the job to the people and don’t expect the people to go looking for the jobs in the big cities. This is important for the Beduin women,” Wafa said.
Sareem Abu Asat is an 18- year- old client of the Rayan South employment center and a beacon for the next generation of Beduin youth.
Through the legitimacy of the center and trust from within her community, Abu Asat has gained the support from her family to begin study in a special engineering program. She hopes to become a medical engineer.
“This is my dream, because I want to help,” she said.