The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) estimated the average unemployment rate in Gaza at more than 45% in the second half of 2010, which is one of the worst in the world.
It added that over 45.2 percent of the working-age people in Gaza were unemployed, a slight improvement from the 45.7 percent of unemployed in the parallel period in 2009.
The UNRWA related this relatively high unemployment rate mainly to Israel’s blockade against Gaza following the election of Hamas in January 2006, and the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is assumed to be held in Gaza.
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