Fri, 29 May 2015 Palestinian unemployment has risen by more than 25% following a stalled peace process, high tensions and the effects of last year’s war in Gaza, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The ILO’s annual report on the situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories (the West Bank and Gaza Strip) found that the total number of unemployed Palestinians soared by more than a quarter in 2014, as compared with 2013, to reach 338,300. 

The unemployment rate for Gaza was more than double that of the West Bank. The employment situation was particularly dire for young people, with almost 40% of young men and 63% of young women being unemployed. About three-quarters of the Palestinian population is aged 30 or under.

ILO director general Guy Ryder wrote in the report’s preface: “The combined weight of the continued occupation and the [Israeli] settlements does not permit the development of a viable, productive Palestinian economy, which could provide sufficient opportunities in terms of decent work. If current trends continue, the scope for such opportunities will shrink further.” 

The report will be submitted to the ILO’s International Labour Conference, which opens in Geneva on 1 June.

The report calls on all parties to continue the search for a two-state solution and warns of a potential “downward spiral” because of “consistently bleak employment and income prospects”.

Palestinian gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014 experienced its first year-on-year decline since 2006. In Gaza, real GDP per capita was almost 30% lower than in 1999. 

The report also notes a growing number of Palestinians in the Israeli labour market, with or without the required permits. 

The ILO notes that Israeli employers and trade unions want more Palestinian workers, and says that more than 52,000 already work legally in Israel, with a further estimated 26,000 in the settlements. In total, an estimated 107,000 Palestinians work in the Israeli economy, but one-third of these are estimated to be working in “unregulated conditions, which can be precarious and exploitative”. The report advises that “the conditions of recruitment and employment of Palestinian workers should be addressed as a matter of urgency”.

“Some restrictions on the access of Palestinians to the Israeli labour market have recently been relaxed, and this has given a degree of relief in a situation of high and growing Palestinian unemployment,” the report adds.

The findings of the report are based on in-depth discussions and field visits to the occupied Arab territories and Israel in March this year. Since 1980, the ILO’s director-general has been mandated to present an annual report to the International Labour Conference on the situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories, including the occupied Syrian Golan.