{"id":9277,"date":"2016-06-26T18:02:45","date_gmt":"2016-06-26T18:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohelet.org.il\/article\/recommendations-and-findings-on-labor-productivity-in-israel\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T07:59:55","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T07:59:55","slug":"recommendations-and-findings-on-labor-productivity-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/recommendations-and-findings-on-labor-productivity-in-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Recommendations and Findings on Labor Productivity in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/LaborProductivityMemo.pdf\">Read the full memo<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent decades, Israeli labor productivity is not closing the gap with more developed countries, and in many respects the gaps are even widening.<br><br> \u2022 A key factor in the widening productivity gap in the past decade are welcome changes in the labor\u00a0market, in particular tremendous growth in the labor participation rate alongside a decline in the\u00a0unemployment rate. By comparison, employment growth in other developed countries has been<br> quite modest. We should not fall into the trap of viewing the extraordinary ability of Israeli young\u00a0people from varied backgrounds to find gainful employment in the local job market as a type of\u00a0failure. We emphasize that maintaining the economy\u2019s ability to create jobs is no less important than\u00a0increasing labor productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Highly inflexible employment practices harm productivity in the public sector. The collective&nbsp;agreements in this sector make the proper allocation of the labor force very difficult. For example, it is&nbsp;very complicated to transfer an employee from on position to another, or to implement streamlining&nbsp;plans. Israel\u2019s labor laws are such that the strong labor unions in the public sector \u2013 and particularly&nbsp;in the government monopolies \u2013 can prevent reforms and arrangements that could increase labor&nbsp;productivity, their employment conditions and the quality of life of all Israel\u2019s citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 It is important to improve the elementary and high school education system, especially in the Arab&nbsp;and Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) sectors. The cholastic achievements in the Arab sector are&nbsp;similar to those in Jordan and Tunisia, while in the Haredi sector male students are not taught at&nbsp;all skills essential in the modern job market. Research indicates that Israel has a dual job market,&nbsp;in which industries with high-end jobs cannot attract workers from low-income sectors. A possible&nbsp;reason for this is likely the exceptionally high number of poorly skilled young people with who cannot&nbsp;compete in industries that demand higher skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Israel has significant obstacles to entrepreneurship and establishing businesses. A study by the&nbsp;OECD found that the legal hurdles for fledgling businesses in Israel are among the most daunting&nbsp;of any OECD country. Other comparative studies have shown that an anti-competitive regime tends&nbsp;to hinder the adoption of international improvements that increase labor productivity. There should&nbsp;therefore be efforts to reduce regulation and the protection of existing business, and lower the other&nbsp;barriers to entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent decades, Israeli labor productivity is not closing the gap with more developed countries, and in\nmany respects the gaps are even widening.","protected":false},"featured_media":9278,"template":"","article-category":[525],"custom-tags":[46,565],"ppma_author":[49],"class_list":["post-9277","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article-category-publications","custom-tags-economy-of-israel","custom-tags-productivity"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Recommendations and Findings on Labor Productivity in Israel - kohelet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/recommendations-and-findings-on-labor-productivity-in-israel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Recommendations and Findings on Labor Productivity in Israel - 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