A special study published this morning (Sunday) by the Employment Service shows that one of the trends that has characterized the Israeli labor market in recent years is an increase in the number of resignations. More and more workers in Israel have voluntarily chosen to leave their jobs during the coronavirus crisis.
The rate of increase in the number of resignations increased as the number of job seekers continued to decline. In fact the large increase in the number of resignations came after the number of unemployment claimants stood at the lowest rate ever.
These statistics demonstrate the strength of the Israeli economy, which has had a tight labor market with high growth, low unemployment and a high number of unfilled positions.
In the current job market, many employees choose to resign out of confidence that they can find an alternative job and possibly even a higher salary. In this decade, the vast majority of retirees were high-wage earners, with academic occupations and high work skills.
Despite the economic crisis that has befallen Israel, like most countries, since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 - there has been an increase in the number and rate of voluntary resignations. In addition, the rate of resignations among job seekers has reached its peak precisely since the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis.
If in 2014 people who had resigned their positions constituted 12.3% of job seekers and gradually increased over the years, and since the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis their rate stands at 22.6%, with low wage earners also joining the growing trend of resignations.
The severity of the phenomenon becomes even clearer when one examines the rate of change recorded from 2012 to 2020 in the rate of employed persons compared with the number of resignations and the number of firings.
While the rate of employed persons in 2020 was 17% higher than the rate of employed persons in 2012, the number of fired persons in 2020 was 11% higher than their number in 2012.
However, when looking at the trend of the number of resignations in these years, the number of resignations in 2020 was 107% higher compared to their number in 2012. That is, the increase in the number of resignations between 2012-2020 was multiple tines higher than the corresponding increase recorded in the employment rate (17%) in those years.
Between 2012 and 2013, there was a decrease in the number of resignations, partly due to the recovery of the economy from the global crisis of 2008, but since 2015 their number has steadily increased as a result of economic growth and an increase in the job vacancy rate.
Despite the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis, the vacancy rate was low and the rate of job seekers skyrocketed and remained high throughout the crisis. Nevertheless, there was a very significant increase in the number of resignations. - While in 2019 the increase was 29% compared to 2012, in 2020 the increase was already estimated at 107% compared to 2012, compared to a relatively moderate increase during this period in the rate of employed persons in the economy.
Employment Service CEO Rami Graur explains that “the increase in the number of resignations among low-wage earners and low-skilled people was made possible in light of the sweeping extension of entitlement to unemployment benefits until last July. However, not everyone was able to use the period to recalculate a career path, strengthen their skills and improve their work skills."
"This trend highlights the need to strengthen work skills, especially digital, thus enabling an optimal return to the labor market. Not only in terms of integration, but also and especially in terms of perseverance and providing opportunities for employment promotion and mobility in the labor market. I call on all job seekers to be assisted in the variety of employment service programs, whether in employment counseling, personal training, career management workshops and professional training," Grauer concluded.