The economic effect of the coronavirus pandemic continued to be felt in Israel this week, as Israeli unemployment hit 20 per cent and the country’s Employment Service warned that up to a million people could be out of work by Passover.  

The stark warnings were made by the head of Israel’s Employment Service Rami Garor, who said that internal estimates suggested that as many as a fifth of those filing for unemployment during the crisis will not have jobs to return to once the coronavirus lockdown is lifted.

On Thursday, Israel’s unemployment rate edged over 20 per cent mark, with 39,000 having registered for unemployment support within the previous 24 hours.

690,000 people have filed for unemployment benefit since March 1, 90 per cent of whom are workers that have been placed on temporary leave without pay as demand declines and companies are forced to close because of coronavirus restrictions.

Israel’s coronavirus shock appears to be hitting women and millennials hard: 59 per cent of those filing are women, and just under half are aged between 20 and 34.

The Israeli government has announced measures such as a 6,000-shekel (£1,380) grant to small businesses and the self-employed, tax deferrals and grants to support small and medium enterprises’ research and development programmes.

Bank of Israel Chairman Amir Yaron said on Tuesday that restrictions would cost the Israeli GDP up to 3.5 per cent if they continued up to the end of April, or even up to 6 per cent for an additional month of lockdown.

The bank has moved to limit the damage, announcing on Monday that it would purchase 50 billion shekels  (£11.5 billion) of government bonds in a bit to allay credit markets.

It has extended its foreign currency swap transactions with Israeli banks in a bid to introduce greater liquidity into the Israeli economy and to stabilise the shekel.

As of Thursday, Israel has 2,666 confirmed cases of coronavirus and eight people have died.