Tel Aviv, Nov 2 (IANS): The total number of unemployed people in Israel dropped to about 305,400 in October, according to figures issued by the country's Central Bureau of Statistics, the lowest since the onset of the Covid pandemic.

This is an unemployment rate of 7.1 per cent, reports Xinhua news agency citing the official figures.

The unemployment rate in Israel was 8 per cent in August, and decreased to 7.9 per cent in September.

On March 1, 2020, the unemployment rate in the country was only 4 per cent, and within a month jumped to 25 per cent, with more than 1 million unemployed following the pandemic outbreak.

Since then, the number of unemployed in Israel has decreased gradually before rising back to almost 1 million in October last year.

From the beginning of 2021, it has fallen back to the current low rate.

Of the current number of unemployed in Israel, about 88,000, or 28.8 per cent, were laid off or put on an unpaid leave because of the pandemic.