Olim struggle to find work as immigrant employment fair kicks off
Over 1,000 olim attended an employment fair organized by the Immigration and Absorption Ministry.
By TAMAR URIEL-BEERIOlim attend an employment fair especially for their community.(photo credit: GIDEON SHARON / GPO)
The Immigration and Absorption Ministry hosted the country's employment fair for olim on Thursday at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, where new immigrants explained that it is particularly difficult to break into the Israeli work market.Over 1,000 olim attended the event, which was created especially for their community after the ministry recognized a particular difficulty among new immigrants in breaking into the hi-tech market and big-corporation playing field. A total of 35 companies came to search for olim to fill up a total of 900 possible jobs in the fields of medicine, engineering, education and more."The Israeli economy can benefit from employees with talent and experience, but olim encounter barriers that do not allow them to cross over to the stage of candidacy," said major general (ret.) Yoav Gallant. "The [ministry's] fair removes those barriers and allows employees to meet employers who understand the benefits in [hiring] immigrants."Asher Neiman, a 27-year-old immigrant from New York, said, "For the past six months, I have been looking for a full-time job in digital marketing. Since my Hebrew is not yet good, I struggled to find work in my field online and at all, so I came to the employment fair since there are several different employers here who I can meet face-to-face and find work that way."Another attendee, Sergei Rodinski, completed his master's degree in Ukraine in Software Engineering before making aliyah. He explained that the fair was actually his first proper opportunity to search for a job within his profession."We recognize the unique advantage of new immigrants in the hi-tech market," said Ishay Tanzer of Intech Software, a company that attends the fair, which until now has been hosted in Tel Aviv every year for six years. "Unlike Israelis, who apply after finishing a course with no practical experience, olim arrive after having experience in the field. Their Hebrew does not bother us. We even send them to courses to learn Hebrew."Israel’s unemployment rate stood at 3.4% in October, marking a 40-year low, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.
