国际英语新闻:Israel launches emergency labor plan as unemployment rate reaches 22.6 pct

JERUSALEM, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Israel announces an emergency plan for the labor market after the national unemployment rate jumped more than five times in March, the Israel Employment Service announced Sunday amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The bureau said that the unemployment rate has jumped from 4 percent to 22.6 percent since the beginning of March.

According to the bureau, 781,608 Israelis have applied for unemployment benefits since March 1.

The total number of unemployed people in Israel currently exceeds 939,000 and is expected to reach one million in less than two weeks.

The emergency plan includes four support paths based on what is being done in the world.

These paths will focus on bringing employees at unpaid leave back to their workplaces, rapid placement of workers in new workplaces, strengthening skills of unemployed people, and a full vocational training for those who are expected to be unemployed for a long time.