PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

hold full-time jobs. Figure 7.9 iIIustrates how the prevalence of fu 11time
employment increases with increasing education.
Individuals from poor households and persons doing unskilled or
agricultural work, on the other hand, usually work part-time. Part-time
workers have not been asked specifically about reasons for working
less than full-time. The degree eif voluntariness cannot, therefore, be
determined exactly. Still, theyaria:tiorial pattem in full-time and parttime
work shown above, is a dem- indication that
'
many part�time
workers actually are under-e'mployed.
Invisible Underemployment
Measuring invisible underemployment in deveJoplng countries is
even more challehging. InvisibIe:unden!mployment characterized by
low productivity: is probably the most typical form of labour underutilization
fouod in the occupied teiTitåries: Measurement requires,
however, information on the 'econ6mic productivity of individual
economic units. Further, such data must be augmented hy information
on the characteristics of individual workers31• Thresholds below
which income is considered abno,rmally low, skiIIs under-utilized, or
productivity insufficient, must be established. This is generally so
demanding that statisticians, even after severai years of experimentation,
have been forced to give up their efforts32•
Labour Under-utilization
- Concluding Remarks
By way of conclusion, it should be emphasized that unemployment
ratios should be supplemented with other statistics for labour under.:.
utilization., In spite of problems of measurement and interpretation,
the number of part-time workers - and the labour force participation
ratio - are useful indicators of involuntary lack of employment.
Particularly variations foradul� men over regions and socio-economic'
groups may provide useful supplementary information. The indicators
used in this chapter cIearly point to Gaza refugees as being the
most deprived socio-economic group in terms of employment in the
occupied territories33• Residents in Arab Jerusalem and the central
parts of the West Bank, and especially the well educated, seemto be
the groups which face th,� least severe employment problems.
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