In the past, a person could remain employed for many long years at the first place where he or she found work, often up until retirement. Things are slightly different today.
Although during the ten years between 2008 and 2018, most of the employees in Israel ages 30 and up (52% according to the Social Survey of the Central Bureau of Statistics, our source for all the following figures) worked at just one place, when we compare age groups it emerges that among those in the 30 to 39 age group, only 30% worked at one place during the past decade. Apparently, 36% worked at two places, 19% at three, and the others at four or more different places. This is in contrast to 74% of adults ages 60 and up, among whom 20% worked at two places and the remainder at three. It is interesting to note that there is no significant difference between men and women.
It would be easy to explain the above based on the assumption that members of Generation Y, the millennials, change their place of work more frequently as a result of their personal preferences, which trigger changes in the employment market, but it is possible that in addition, young people in general have a greater tendency to move from job to job, and that the older segment of the population did the same, although this was more than a decade earlier.
A comparison between Jerusalem and the rest of the country reveals that the millennials in our city tend to change jobs less frequently, with 37% of employees between the ages of 30 and 39 who reside in Jerusalem having worked at only one place during the past decade. When we contrast Jewish and Arab employees in Jerusalem, we find that among the Jews the situation is similar to that which pertains in the rest of the country, with 32% of Jewish employees ages 30 to 39 having worked in only one place during the past ten years. However, among Arabs in the city in the same age group there is greater employment stability, with 45% having worked at just one place for the same period.
Translated by Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann
