Despite the slowdown in economic activity and a decline in most economic indexes, the unemployment rate in Israel in October was just 5%, the lowest since 1978's 4.3% jobless level. The October rate, which was released on Monday by the Central Bureau of Statistics, translates in human terms into 155,200 Israelis who were seeking employment in October. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz called the decline in the jobless rate evidence of the success of the government's economic policy against the backdrop of the world economic crisis.
