On video: Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef: If they force us to go to the army, we will all go abroad/use according to Section 27 A of the Copyright Law
When the Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef threatened last weekend with a mass desertion of ultra-Orthodox people from Israel, if they were forced to enlist ("If they force us to go to the army, we will all go abroad. We will buy tickets. There is no such thing"), he was referring to the conscription law, but included in the discussion The explosion is another burning issue - the integration of ultra-Orthodox men into the labor market.
We will not go into the issue of financing the move abroad now, and whether yeshiva students can suddenly jump on the nearest plane and sail overseas, with large families and no reserves in the bank. But one can certainly wonder who will support them when they learn Torah significantly and do not receive the allowances that are given to them The State of Israel has a large hand. So the Rabbi may take them out of the army on iron wings, but will throw them straight into the demanding job market instead of learning Torah, because food for the children has to be paid for somehow.
Dr. Gilad Malach, research fellow and head of the ultra-Orthodox program at the Israel Democracy Institute , says that the employment rates of Haredim in the USA, where the largest concentration of the sector is found abroad, are significantly higher than in Israel, and the level of education of the Lithuanians among them is higher, while that of the American Hasids is as low as that of their brothers in Israel.
"Since they are the ones who have to finance the private schools there," he explains, "they must go to work. Although they receive welfare support and housing assistance from the state, the financial pressure is great. Since they do not have to study Torah, otherwise they will be recruited into the IDF, They go to work and don't study, or are supposed to study, all day."
The very partial integration of the ultra-Orthodox in the labor market is critical and has a dramatic negative effect on Israel's economic data. The contribution per capita of ultra-Orthodox to the state coffers is significantly lower than that of non-Orthedim, at a quarter of their total income comes from supports and allowances.
All of this increases the poverty figures and deteriorates the socio-economic ranking of the local authorities where the ultra-Orthodox live and reduces the services they receive from them. In every report that refers to Israel's economy, attention is paid to the need for the integration of the ultra-Orthodox in the labor market now and in the future, with an emphasis on the background of the increase The demographic is unprecedented among them.
Miletsky.
"The increase in the cost of living and the increase in interest on mortgages is a dramatic and very significant event for the ultra-Orthodox"/Nir Selkman
"The quality of employment is not increasing"
With the help of Dr. Malach and Yehudit Miletsky, head of employment at the ultra-orthodox institute for policy studies, we will try to describe the processes that ultra-orthed society has undergone in recent years and their effect on their integration into the labor market. and the ultra-Orthodox women, and how all this is related to education.
2023 can be noted as a record year when it comes to ultra-Orthodox employment. The number of ultra-Orthodox men who went to work reached a peak of 55.5%, after years of stagnation. Miletsky says that in recent years there has been a consistent increase in the employment rates of ultra-Orthodox, of 1%-2%, and she attributes it to the government's efforts invested in training programs, orientation projects, and the provision of tools and professional knowledge that are beginning to bear fruit
.
We expected that this would happen immediately after the first interest rate increase and would bring the ultra-Orthodox participation to a rate of 60%.
On the other hand, the quality of employment of ultra-Orthodox men is not increasing."
"If 20 years ago an ultra-Orthodox earned 70% of an ultra-Orthodox, today the gap is 50%," adds Dr. Malach.
"The labor market is becoming more professional through academic studies. The ultra-Orthodox do not have the appropriate professional training, so their value in the market is decreasing. They work more and earn less."
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"If 20 years ago an ultra-Orthodox earned 70% of an ultra-Orthodox, today the gap is 50%"/Oded Antman
The researchers of the ultra-orthodox institute for policy studies found that not only are ultra-Orthodox men's wages low compared to the general population, but that they earn less than ultra-orthodox women based on an hourly calculation.
Miletsky claims that this is due to the fact that they are usually employed within the community in educational institutions, as rabbis, overseers and other professions where no professional training is required and therefore the remuneration they receive is low
. The population needs three workers and the wages are low.
Among the non-Orthodox, 11% of the men are involved in education, and among the ultra-Orthodox, 30% of the men.
On the other hand, 14% of non-Orthodox men work in high-tech, which is the fastest growing and most lucrative field, and only 3% of ultra-Orthodox men have integrated into it, and this affects their level of income.
"Since 45% of ultra-Orthodox men do not work at all, this is where the women come in. We see a consistent increase in the employment rate of ultra-Orthodox women, which stands at 81% compared to 83% among non-Orthodox women. The gap in the level of income among ultra-Orthodox women is also smaller and stands at 2/3 "
The average ultra-Orthodox
household brings in NIS 15,000 gross per month, including benefits and allowances, while a non-Orthodox household brings in NIS 22,000.
The number of souls among the ultra-Orthodox is double, but the expenditure per soul is smaller.
We found that ultra-Orthodox families are always in the red, assuming there is unreported capital.
"Three years ago, we conducted a survey through an ultra-Orthodox survey institute, which we assume they trusted more than the CBS or another official, and we discovered that 60% of the men reported that they were working, and some of them also received an allowance.
This means that an average family brings in another NIS 1,000 a month, so they are not in the red.
When it comes to a state of delicate balance, any economic pressure causes going to work.
The increase in inflation, which led to an increase in interest rates and made mortgages more expensive, forced more men to go to work."
The data reinforces the claim that if the state cuts allowances for ultra-Orthodox men, it will encourage them to go to work.
"The cut in child allowances in 2003 resulted in an increase in employment, just like the cut in the yeshiva budget in 2013.
It is possible to stop the daycare discount and property tax discounts, and this will inevitably affect going to work, because you need a minimum income to survive."
Employment rate by sector and gender - 2023/screenshot, Walla system!
Average salary of employees, by sector and gender - 2021/screenshot, Walla system!
less direct taxes
The expenses of the ultra-Orthodox households are limited, not only because of the ascetic lifestyle they lead, but because of the amount of direct tax payments, which is, on average, NIS 1,500 for the ultra-Orthodox compared to about NIS 4,000 in the general population.
Income tax is almost never paid because of the low income, health tax is 40% of the payments in general society even though the number of children is greater and the amount of the national insurance is lower than that of an unemployed person.
It turns out that the tax burden on non-Orthodox families is two and a half times greater than that of families in the Orthodox sector.
In addition to the Habarach support and the children's allowances, which are real money, the ultra-Orthodox receive additional support, the most significant of which for them is the day care discount, which reaches up to NIS 1,000 per month per child.
Between the ages of 21 and 40, ultra-Orthodox families have at least one child of these ages.
The property tax discount, which can reach 90%, saves several hundred shekels a month.
We will devote a special chapter to the ultra-Orthodox women, we will only note that there is a significant difference in their motivation and desire to work, become professional and earn more, compared to the men who in the 8th grade do not learn any special subjects at all, and from the age of 13 only study Talmud.
The population in Israel: the ultra-Orthodox group is growing/screenshot, Walla!
"block employment"
"The ultra-Orthodox men don't learn the core," says Malach, "and therefore the gap is only growing. The age at which they enter the labor market also has an effect. An ultra-Orthodox who goes to work at the age of 17-26, after the exemption age, who already has a family and three children to support, how much time does he have Should he devote to professional training? Perhaps to short courses that make it difficult to narrow the gap."
And to this Miltsky adds, that unlike teenagers in the general sector, who choose a field to focus on, and gain knowledge and direction in the army, an ultra-Orthodox child does not know the job market, he has no orientation and needs to complete knowledge.
And how does recruitment enter into the considerations of going to work?
"More people go to work without enlistment than with enlistment," she says.
"Today, the draft is considered a barrier to employment more than an encouragement to employment. There are more men who would like to go to work and do not do it, because of the fear that they will be drafted before the age of exemption. The draft is an unacceptable event. Civil service provides an opportunity to acquire an education and contribute to the country, and everyone gets paid from it. The ultra-orthodox use it to promote themselves occupationally. In any case, the connection between recruitment and employment is a mistake."
Weekly working hours by sector and gender/screenshot, Voila system!
In light of the phenomenal demographic growth among the ultra-Orthodox, which stands at 4% per year, compared to 1% among the non-Orthodox, economists and researchers fear a future in which there will be more of a supported population in Israel than an income-generating population.
According to a calculation made by Dr. Malach, the harm to the GDP due to the absence of ultra-Orthodox men in the labor market and the income level of the non-working among them is approximately 30 billion shekels per year, and in ten years it will reach 120 billion shekels per year. As the participation rate in the labor market increases, so will The damage to the product will be reduced. "If the level of support for yeshiva and kollels drops dramatically, it will create a change in the men's employment market.
If more supports are given in core studies, the level of income will be higher.
Any step that reduces the supports will have an impact."
How worried are you?
"I wrote my PhD in 2009, I believed that the gaps would be closed little by little and in 2015 I realized that it did not happen.
The ultra-orthodox society does not align with what is happening outside - Corona, the Miron disaster, or the war - but takes care of its own interest.
Overall, the situation is not good enough.
We need a change that will come from the state.
If until today they have taken positive steps of support and scholarships for those who want to integrate into work, the next step should be on the path of negation, fewer allowances and benefits for the inmates and more maximizing earning capacity to support dormitories and property taxes and the conditions to support core studies.
This is the condition for the next growth in the combination of ultra-Orthodox in the employment market."
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