Israel's war on Gaza spikes unemployment rate to nearly 80 percent: UN

The war on Gaza has seen the unemployment rate in the besieged Palestinian territory surge to nearly 80 percent, the United Nations has said.

The UN's labour agency said on Friday that Israel's war on Gaza had "caused loss of jobs and livelihoods on a massive scale", while gross domestic product has also plunged.

Since October last year, "the unemployment rate in Gaza has reached a staggering 79.1 percent", the International Labour Organization said, citing a new brief by the ILO and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

In the occupied West Bank, unemployment has reached 32 percent, the ILO added.

The average unemployment rate across the occupied West Bank and Gaza combined stood at 50.8 percent, it said.

However, these figures "do not account for those who have left the labour force altogether as job prospects proved unattainable", it said.

"The actual number of those who have lost their jobs is therefore even higher than what the unemployment figures suggest."

The ILO said real GDP had contracted by 83.5 percent in Gaza and by 22.7 percent in the occupied West Bank over the past eight months.

"Our new bulletin shows that the grim toll the war in Gaza has taken on human lives, and the desperate humanitarian situation it has caused, are accompanied by widespread devastation of economic activities and livelihoods," said Ruba Jaradat, the ILO regional director for Arab states.

'Collapsed' labour market

The ILO said that in Gaza almost all private sector establishments "have either completely ceased or significantly reduced production", with the sector shedding 85.8 percent of its production value — equivalent to $810 million — during the first four months of the war.

Gaza's economy now represents 4.1 percent of the total Palestinian economy, down from 16.7 percent before the war.

The unemployment update comes as the ILO holds its annual International Labour Conference in Geneva from June 3-14.

"In the wake of the horrific Hamas-led atrocities against Israel and the ensuing relentless war waged by Israel, the labour market in Gaza has literally collapsed," ILO chief Gilbert F. Houngbo said during the conference on Thursday.

"Gaza is in ruins. Livelihoods are shattered and work is scarce. Labour rights have been decimated.

"This has been the hardest year for Palestinian workers since 1967. Never before has the situation been this bleak."

Houngbo called for a job-rich and rights-driven early recovery even while the humanitarian response to the war is still unfolding, saying job creation and decent work out to be at the heart of rebuilding infrastructure and services.

"Of course, none of this will be possible without an end to the current war and the release of all hostages," the former Togolese prime minister added.

Founded in 1919, the ILO has 187 member states, which are, uniquely in the UN system, represented equally by governments, employers and workers.