JERUSALEM, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Israel's unemployment rate has jumped from 4 percent to 17.6 percent since the beginning of March, the Israel Employment Service announced Monday amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the bureau, 572,660 Israelis have applied for unemployment benefits since March 1.
The unemployment rate in Israel reached 16.5 percent on Sunday morning, and since then, more than 60,000 appliers have been added.
The total number of unemployed people in Israel currently exceeds 740,000.
This number is expected to significantly rise even further if the Israeli government announces a complete closure in the coming days, after the number of coronavirus patients has recently reached 1,238.
Since the first coronavirus cases were confirmed in Israel in late February, activity in workplaces has been significantly reduced, with hundreds of thousands forced on unpaid leave and tens of thousands of others fired.
In addition to laid-off workers, only employees who have been put on unpaid leave for more than 30 days are eligible for unemployment benefits. They make up about 90 percent of the total March applicants.
The number of the novel coronavirus cases in Israel has risen to 1,238, Israeli Ministry of Health said on Monday.
