"Unemployment Dynamics Among the Arab Minority in Israel: Evidence from Panel Data." .
The Arab Community in Israel: Population, Society, Economy, Jerusalem: The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 2008.
This article examines the phenomenon of unemployment among Israel’s Arab population and the causes of the increase in unemployment rates therein. Identification of individuals’ transition probabilities between labor market situations using panel-micro data of labor force surveys from 1990-2004 provides important information that adds to our understanding of the causes of an increase in unemployment rates among Arabs as compared to those in the Jewish population characterizing the second half of the 1990s.
Two important conclusions arose from the present study. The first is that from calculations of yearly probabilities of transitions between labor market situations, unemployment, and non-participation in the labor force, it emerges that unemployment rates among Arabs are higher than those among Jews, and that the reason for this is that the probability of Arabs leaving the pool of the unemployed is lower, and the probability of their entering it is higher; moreover, these trends sharpen over time. Secondly, young people and those without education who are employed in traditional industries tend to lose their jobs more than do adults or educated workers employed in advanced industries. In addition, the article examines the increase in the number of foreign workers as a factor in the dynamic of the labor force and the resultant fluctuations in unemployment rates.