Education and Employment in the Haredi Sector

 A new and more precise method of identifying the Haredi population was developed, enabling a deeper analysis as well as a more comprehensive picture of employment and education patterns.  The findings point to a significant positive effect of formal education on the employment rates and wage levels of Haredi men and women.  Paradoxically, however, in recent decades there has been a gradual decline in formal education rates in this sector.  An in-depth examination of the Haredi labor market reveals several irregularities concerning the supply and demand for manpower.  Among Haredi men and women, there is both a considerable over-supply of manpower in the field of education and a lack of the tools and training that are necessary for integration in other fields.  These trends coincided with a sharp rise in the rate of Haredi men studying in yeshivas, and in their average length of study.  All of this indicates a gradual transition from the labor market to the world of Torah study.  Entrenchment of these patterns makes the return to the labor market a significant challenge.

This paper appears in the Center’s annual publication State of the Nation Report – Society, Economy and Policy 2013.