A report released Monday by the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs reveals a slowdown in the decade-long rise in employment rates among Haredi men in Israel.
The findings attribute this trend partly to efforts to expand military conscription among working Haredi men, specifically targeting those who are not enrolled in yeshiva and receive official paychecks.
According to the report, Israel's Haredi population stands at approximately 1.26 million as of late 2024, accounting for 12.5% of the total population. While the fertility rate among Haredi women has declined to a 43-year low of 6.1 children per woman, demographic projections suggest that Haredim will constitute 20%-22% of Israel’s population by 2065 due to continued population growth and shifts in migration patterns.
The report also notes significant internal migration within the Haredi community over the past decade. Approximately 75,000 Haredim have left Jerusalem, and 42,000 have moved out of Bnei Brak, while cities like Beit Shemesh absorbed an influx of 40,000 new Haredi residents. Despite these shifts, Jerusalem and Bnei Brak remain the cities with the largest Haredi populations.
Employment among Haredi men has gradually increased from 48% in 2014 to 54% in 2024, a rise attributed to government and private sector initiatives encouraging workforce participation.
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play: https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv
However, employment dipped slightly from 55% in 2023 to 54% in 2024. The report cites economic effects from the war and the broader security situation, as well as renewed debates over military conscription policies. Attempts by the IDF to issue draft orders based on payroll data have reportedly led some Haredi men to either stay in yeshiva or work informally to avoid detection.
The report also highlights a notable trend in the growing popularity of state-funded Haredi schools, which combine traditional religious studies with core curriculum subjects. These institutions, established in 2014, have faced fierce opposition from prominent Haredi rabbis, yet their enrollment numbers continue to grow.
The number of boys in these schools rose from 1,200 in 2014 to 11,900 in 2024, increasing their share of all Haredi male students from 1% to 8%. Similarly, the number of girls enrolled climbed from 1,170 to 6,600 over the decade, reaching 4% of the total female Haredi student population.
A slight decline in employment among Haredi men in 2024 is linked to selective conscription policies, according to Dr. Eitan Regev, vice president of research at the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs.
"The drop is primarily due to targeted draft notices sent to Haredi individuals who are employed or pursuing higher education," Regev said. He added that these policies deterred some young Haredim from entering the workforce, fearing conscription, while others shifted to unregistered employment. "Tying the issue of conscription to employment has been a recurring mistake since the 1970s," he noted.
The report also sheds light on income trends among Haredi households using administrative data from Israel's Tax Authority, rather than relying solely on household expenditure surveys. It finds that the average net income of Haredi households from employment in 2022 was approximately 500 shekels higher than survey-based estimates.
Similar discrepancies were observed among non-Haredi Jewish households, where administrative data revealed average net incomes that were about 2,000 shekels higher than survey figures.
Between 2014 and 2019, average monthly income from employment rose from approximately 14,160 shekels to 18,070 shekels. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a slight dip to around 17,400 shekels in 2020, but incomes rebounded quickly, reaching an average of 20,670 shekels by 2022.