Hibernating

Up until October 7, Israel’s construction industry relied heavily on Palestinian manpower. About 75,000 Palestinians in the West Bank held permits to work in Israel. There were another 12,000 in the Gaza Strip, while about 15,000 illegal entrants were employed in the industry. That amounts to about a third of the workforce in the entire sector. With the outbreak of the Swords of Iron war, the entry of Palestinian workers into Israel was stopped entirely, leading to an immediate shortfall of 100,000 workers.

According to the Association of Contractors and Builders in Israel, however, the numbers are much higher. In response to the proposal by the Ministry of Finance in the revised 2024 budget, the Association wrote that even before the war there was a permanent shortage of 40,000 workers for the industry’s needs. In other words, the industry is actually now lacking 140,000 workers.

The Association adds that at present almost 50% of the building sites in the country are shut down, because of the severe shortage of manpower. Those that are active are working at 30% of normal output. The most recent survey by the Central Bureau of Statistics found that 41% of the building sites in the Tel Aviv and central regions and 58% of the sites in the Jerusalem region had been shut since the war broke out.

As for foreign construction workers, before the war there were some 23,000 of them in Israel, mainly from Moldova and China. About 3,000 were reported to have left at the beginning of the war, many of them because of the security situation. (From Globes 16-1-23).

As for me, I am sleeping and inactive. Several projects are detained but I am not pushing them. I am hibernating.