Gaza unemployment at 45.2% among highest in world and real wages falling says UNRWA

JERUSALEM — The unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip stood at 45.2 percent in late 2010, one of the highest in the world according to a report released on Tuesday by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

The figure, for the second half of 2010, was a slight improvement on the 45.7 percent rate during the same period in 2009, but it was an increase from the first half of 2010, when a temporary building boom boosted employment.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said the figures showed the ongoing crisis in Gaza and the continuing effects of Israel’s blockade on the coastal territory.

“These are disturbing trends,” UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said, referring to the both the unemployment figures and statistics showing that real wages were continuing to decline.

He said it was “hard to understand the logic” of Israel’s blockade, saying it “deliberately impoverishes so many and condemns hrdreds of thousands of potentially productive people to a life of destitution.” more

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