After more than a year of war, 91% of salaried workers continue to remain salaried today, but of those, Arab workers were hardest hit, and 37% reported a reduction in their working hours, according to a recently released survey by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI).
The survey—with 1,236 respondents—sought to assess the financial impact of the Israel-Hamas war on the Israeli workforce, and its findings “point to several population groups that require special attention, such as Arab Israelis, self-employed workers, and the non-profit sector.”
Researchers used a representative sample of a population of salaried and self-employed workers in Israel who were employed as of October 6, 2023.
Self-employed workers in Israel are impacted more than salaried workers, the survey reported, with 54% of the former experiencing a decline of around 50% in their business activity due to the war.
Among all respondents, about half think their household’s available funds would last more than one month, 23% said funds would last between one and three months and 27% see funds lasting for more than three months.
The survey found that large amounts of haredim and Arabs, 45% and 40%, reported their households have no liquid funds.
Different areas of the country
Residents of the country’s South and North were also highlighted as a population that require special attention, the researchers noted, saying, “We plan to undertake a special analysis of the population of evacuees.”
In the North and in Haifa, a large percentage of workers reported their households have no funds, at 35% and 37%, respectively.
Salaried non-haredi Jews and haredim also reported a decrease in working hours, at 15% and 8%, respectively. A drop is seen compared to a January 2024 survey, in which haredim workers saw a 12% decrease in work hours.
In this January survey, Arab workers reported a 47% decrease in work hours, seemingly indicating the situation is "less harsh” today, the survey stated.
The study was conducted by the IDI’s Center for Governance and Economy Director Daphna Aviram-Nitzan and Research Assistant Omer Cohen, with support from the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research.