Addressing a seminar at the Sderot Conference on Social and Economic Policy on Tuesday, Lieutenant-Colonel Shlomi Avraham discussed some of the latest IDF conscription statistics. According to Avraham, head of the IDF's Technology 
Overall numbers of exemptions from military service, Lieut.-Col. Avraham concluded, are growing from year to year.
Manpower and Research Directorate, 28 percent of Israeli youth eligible for the draft are not being recruited into the ranks of the armed forces. Among them, 5 percent are draft-dodgers and the rest are exempt as a matter of policy.
In 2007, 11.2 percent of the non-recruits are listed as full-time yeshiva students, who have the option of indefinitely postponing military service. This figure was only 4.9 percent in 1991. Just over 7 percent of this year's recruits obtained a medical exemption, while 2 percent were listed as handicapped or deceased. Another 4 percent of potential recruits are overseas and 3 percent were exempt from service due to their criminal record. Six percent of army-age youths requested review for an exemption due to an unsuitable psychological profile in 2006.
Overall numbers of exemptions from military service, Lieut.-Col. Avraham concluded, are growing from year to year. The figures Avraham cited only refer to those Israelis of army age who are eligible for the draft. In addition to Jewish males, Druze and other non-Arab Israelis are eligible for compulsory military service; whereas, young women have the option of declaring their ineligibility for religious reasons. Israeli-Arabs are ineligible for compulsory service, but an estimated 10 percent choose to volunteer for service in the IDF nonetheless.
In breaking the latest IDF conscription figures down according to locales, military exemptions issued for Jerusalem residents reached 52 percent of draft-age youths. In Tel Aviv, the figure is 34.8 percent. In the south of the country, 22.7 percent of potential soldiers are exempted from service, while only 17.4 percent of those in the north are not drafted.
Among those discharged from the army in 2006, 17.7 percent were only six months into their compulsory service. The majority of those released early were exempted due to a problematic psychological profile that became evident only after conscription. In addition, many of those discharged early were from the administrative or transportation branches of the army.
In response to the worrying conscription statistics, Knesset Member Chaim Katz (Likud) proposed a law that would strip draft-dodgers of their driver's licenses. Any person who avoided IDF service for psychological reasons should not be allowed to get or renew a driver's license, Katz said, adding that his bill would reduce the number of young people avoiding IDF service by claiming to suffer from mental disorders.
In August, dozens of CEOs of Israeli companies signed a pledge not to hire shirkers of IDF army service. At the time, stepped up efforts by the army to identify draft-dodgers were netting more than ten such young people every week, compared to just one or two per week previously.