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Palestinian unemployment up in 2017

February 13, 2018 at 11:22 am

Palestinians attend a protest against unemployment and poverty outside the Palestinian Prime Ministry in Gaza City Gaza on 24 November, 2016 [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency]

Unemployment amongst Palestinians rose by half a per cent last year reaching an average of 27.4 per cent in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported today that 377,300 Palestinians are now unemployed in the occupied Palestinian territories. It added that joblessness was much higher in the besieged Gaza Strip than in the occupied West Bank.

Some 18.1 per cent of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were unemployed in 2017, accounting for 157,100 people, compared to 43.6 per cent of those in the besieged Gaza Strip which saw 220,200 jobless.

The Gaza Strip, where more than two million people live, is suffering from deteriorating conditions due to the 11-year-old Israeli siege and the failure of the reconciliation process between Fatah and Hamas.

Last year 1.375 million people were employed, the study revealed, 870,000 in the West Bank and approximately 505,000 in Gaza.

The highest unemployment rate was recorded amongst Palestinians aged 20-24 which reached 44.6 per cent in 2017.

Read: Palestinian unemployment reaches 15-year high