3,000 Arab graduates looked for jobs: Only 170 found one

Ha'aretz
Israel's keenness to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development presents a golden opportunity for minorities to narrow the economic gap with the Jewish population.

The OECD has stated it won't let Israel join its ranks before this problem is solved, and Israel's highest-ranking officials immediately mobilized: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed four committees devoted to narrowing the gaps, and President Shimon Peres sent a busload of business leaders to give them a glance - for some it was their first - at the job market for Arab college graduates.....

? In 2005 there were 57,800 Arabs with college degrees in Israel, or 8.7% of the Arab population of employment age (18-65), compared to 20% of Jews.

? Of these Arab with degrees, 77% (44,500 in total) were employed, but only half of them in jobs that utilized their education.

? 3.6% were unemployed, and 19.8% weren't in the work force (meaning, they were not looking for jobs or seeking unemployment benefits).

? For the sake of comparison, in the Jewish population 83.4% of college graduates were working, 3.6% were unemployed and 12.9% were not in the work force.

? 24% of Arabs with degrees said they had despaired of finding work that met their skills, as compared to 3% of Jews.

? The salary of an Arab college graduate was (and remains) 35% lower than that of a Jewish graduate.

Another statistic? Every year 11,000 Arabs complete a degree program, but only 20% of them study professions that are in demand in the job market. And still, every year more than 2,000 graduates seek jobs in Israel. And they find it's tough going.

.......In the organization's two years, 170 Arabs were found jobs that utilized their training, at Jewish-owned firms. However, this is only a small percentage of the 3,000 people whose resumes the organization sent to employers.

Only 500 candidates were invited to interviews...

........One of the major barriers for Arabs are the hiring exams, most of which are cognitive and based on language and culture. The interview is also based on the candidate's ability to sell himself - something that contradicts Arab culture, which is more collective than individualistic.

"When the exams and interviews do not take cultural differences into account, the Arab academics simply fail, and that's not justified," says Tamir.

...cites A., who has a master's in law from Bar-Ilan University. A. applied to be an attorney at one of the banks. A. failed the regular assessment exams, but after a conversation with the human resources director at the bank, A. was sent to another testing center. Those tests lasted a full day, and analyzed candidates' abilities - and A. did fantastically. Since then he has been working at the bank, and everyone is satisfied.

And there is the problem of the internal glass ceiling. Even when an Arab is hired for a job in high-tech, he is subject to discrimination against in terms of salary and conditions. Y. was hired to work as a high-tech engineer, and discovered he was earning about half what his colleagues were making - and he didn't get a company car, either. His attempts to improve his terms hit a wall, so he decided to resign and to switch to another firm. After reaching understandings with the second firm about his employment terms, he informed his employer he was leaving. Then the fight over him began - because he was an outstanding worker. He eventually wound up staying at his current job, but gained a company car and a much higher salary.

A year and a half ago, Lautman performed an experiment: He sent the resumes of 14 graduates of the same university departments to industrial and service companies in the center of the country. Only seven graduates received replies. All of them were Jewish. The Arab graduates with the same educational background went unanswered.....  Full story