Unemployment in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Required Employment Policies

The paper tackles the plight of unemployment facing the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) as well as its different forms and causes. The paper also investigates the characteristics of the jobless and the relationship between unemployment and poverty and the unequal distribution in income. But the main goal of this study is to set or specify employment policy to be adopted to check or limit the problem of unemployment in the OPT. The major cause of unemployment is attributed to the weak absorption capacity of the Palestinian economy. This has been the result of the destruction of infrastructure in OPT in the last 28 years at the hands of Israeli occupation authorities that has prevented the development of an independent Palestinian economy, rendering it dependent on the Israeli economy. The paper, therefore, concludes that any employment policy in the OPT must focus on the demand side by raising the absorption capacity of the Palestinian economy through a process of construction and reconstruction as well as by encouraging the private sector to invest in projects that require intensive labor employment. Employment policy must also reconsider the present education policy to achieve a balance between the outcomes of the educational system and the needs of the local job market. In the short term, there is a need to implement a public works program and to set up unemployment and social development funds to alleviate the severity of unemployment.