PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

the first part of the chapter was originally developed to record any
labour activity, as opposed to complete non-activity, in keeping with
macro-economic statistical needs. Use of such labour force definitions
in a living conditions, however, can easily be misleading. It
should be stressed that the concept of "unemployment" in the labour
force framework means total lack of workl9. A person c\assified as
"employed" does not necessarily carry out a sufficient amount of
labour activity to cover his or his household' s economic needs. A
major aim of this chapter is thus to show how under-utilization of
labour can be found not only among the unemployed, but in all three
main groups in the labour force framework. As a reference for the
discussion, Figure 7.6 gives a schematic overview of different types
of under-utilization of labour, based on the c\assifications in figure
7.1.
Unemployed Workers 20
This section is concerned with "cIassicaI" unemployment, (box l in
figure 7.6). Figure 7.7 shows regional variations in the FAFO living
conditions survey unemployment ratio. The pattern of unemployment
seerns, perhaps, somewhat perplexing. Otherwise different regions
like Gaza and Arab Jerusalem, have in fact about the same level of
unemployment, which turns out to be higher than that of the West
Bank.
Contrary to what may be expected, unemployment does not
decrease with increasing education. A possible explanation of this
result is that two different effects may be at work simultaneously:
Figure 7.6 Types of labour under-utilization
Il
Unemployed
(ILO del.)
III
Unemployment
Visible
ILO delinition ol
unemployment
1
Not in labour
force (ILO de!.)
Invisible
Discouraged
workers
2
la, b, c
Employed
(ILO del.)
Underemployment
Visible
Invisible
Seeking Low prouctivity
additional work Difficult to measure
3 4
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