Rural labor markets in Israel: structural changes and regionalization

Decrease in agricultural employment in Israel brought about the development of regional labor markets. Farmers decreased on-farm employment in their moshav-type settlements and increased off-farm employment in nearby cities, not following rural-urban migration trends characterizing other countries. Instead of geographical mobility, the change in occupational mobility brought about a change in the structure of settlements. The regional structure of employment is affected by employment opportunities in urban centers, as well as agricultural features of the rural areas. Employment structure varies according to the ratio of off-farm vs on-farm employment. Other factors are unemployment rates and resort to hired labor in settlements. We used cluster analysis to show that employment patterns of different rural settlements reflect unique regional patterns. -Authors