Union: Unemployment in Gaza soars ahead of workers' day

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The unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip has reached 60 percent with some 213,000 workers unemployed, the General Federation of Trade Unions in Gaza said in a statement Sunday ahead of International Workers’ Day on May 1.

Gaza’s unemployment rate has soared from the 44 percent unemployment rate recorded by the World Bank in 2014 to 60 percent, according to the head of the federation Sami al-Amsi. The poverty rate among laborers in the besieged coastal enclave meanwhile stands at a staggering 70 percent, he added.

“Palestinian workers will receive International Workers’ Day with accumulating suffering as a result of the crippling siege imposed by the Israeli occupation,”said al-Amsi, asserting that the labor situation in the Gaza Strip “is the worst it’s been in ten years.”

The statement highlighted Egypt's role in the worsening economic situation, pointing to the ongoing closure of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Al-Amsi slammed the Palestinian unity government for "failing to employ a single worker" since it was formed in 2014. “All that Gaza workers were given were illusionary promises that Minister of Labor Maamoun Abu Shahla made in the name of the government.” more

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