Gaza’s unemployment rises to to 80% as economy collapses

Gaza’s unemployment rate has risen to nearly 80% since the war with Israel began last year, The International Labor Organisation said on October 17th according to Ashraq Al-Aawsat and agencies.

The ILO said the strip’s economy has collased – economic output has shrunk by 85% since the war began, plunging almost all 2.3 million people in Gaza into poverty, the UN agency said.

The war has caused “unprecedented and wide-ranging devastation on the labor market and the wider economy across the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the ILO said, in regards to Gaza and the West Bank.

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The West Bank’s unemployment rate averaged 34.9% between October 2023 and the end of September 2024, and its economy has retracted by 21.7% compared with the previous 12 months, the ILO added.

Gaza’s unemployment rate was 45.3% before the war, while the West Bank’s was 14%. Gazan’s have since either lost their jobs or found work “primarily centred on the provision of essential goods and services.”

The war in Gaza, which followed the October 7th 2023 attacks on Israel, has killed more than 42,000 people, while two-thirds of Gaza’s pre-war structures – over 163,00 buildings – have been damaged or flattened, says UN satellite data.

In the West Bank, Israeli barriers to movement of persons and goods, combined with broader trade restrictions and supply-chain disruptions, have hugely impacted the economy, according to the ILO.

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“The impact of the war in the Gaza Strip has taken a toll far beyond loss of life, desperate humanitarian conditions and physical destruction,” said ILO regional director for Arab states Ruba Jaradat. “It has fundamentally altered the socio-economic landscape of Gaza, while also severely impacting the West Bank’s economy and labour market. The impact will be felt for generations to come.”

Ashraq Al-Aawsat and agencies

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