The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said that there was an increase of 9% in the number of unemployed persons between 2nd and 3rd quarter of 2005.
In a press release on Labour Force Survey Results issued Tuesday, it indicated that the percentage of participants in the labour force increased by 1.2% during the same period.
PCBS added that the percentage of participants in labour force increased from 41.2% in the 2nd quarter 2005 to 41.7% in the 3rd quarter 2005, compared with 43.5% in the 3rd quarter 2000.
According to the press release, the percentage of persons who do not work nevertheless seeking or not seeking job, increased from 26.5% in the 2nd quarter 2005 to 28.4% in the 3rd quarter 2005, compared with 20.2% in the 3rd quarter 2000, according to the relaxed definition of unemployment.
Results also showed that unemployment rate in the West Bank (WB) increased from 17.2% in the 2nd quarter 2005 to 19.9% in the 3rd quarter 2005, while in Gaza Strip (GS) it went down from 30.2% in the 2nd quarter to 29.0% in the 3rd quarter 2005, despite of that unemployment rate in Gaza Strip still high.
