RAMALLAH, Wednesday, July 6, 2022 (WAFA) – As 87,000 Palestinian high school students sat for the General Secondary School Certification Examinations (Tawjihi) for the academic year 2021/2022 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that qualifies them to enter a university, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said in a special press release on the educational fields and labor market for persons aged 20 to 29 years that unemployment rate for this age group with an intermediate diploma or bachelor's degree remains high and reached 53% in 2021 (35% in West Bank and 74% in Gaza Strip), while it was about 54% in 2020 at the national level.

In 2021, business and administration is the field where most students aged 20 to 29 years were enrolled, whether for an intermediate diploma or a bachelor’s degree (BA). In the past decade, the majority of them also majored in business and administration.

The highest unemployment rate among graduates aged 20 to 29 years with an intermediate diploma or BA degree in Palestine was in welfare.

In 2021, the highest unemployment rate among male graduates aged 20 to 29 years with an intermediate diploma or bachelor’s degree in Palestine was in education and languages by 55% for each of them, while the highest unemployment rate among female graduates aged 20 to 29 years with an intermediate diploma or bachelor’s degree in Palestine was in welfare and information and communication technologies (ICTs) by 78% for each of them.

In the Gaza Strip, the highest rate of unemployment among graduates aged 20 to 29 years with a bachelor’s degree or an intermediate diploma was in welfare at 88%, followed by social and behavioral sciences at 86%.

The highest rate of unemployment among graduates aged 20 to 29 years with a bachelor’s degree or an intermediate diploma in the West Bank was in physical sciences at 60%, followed by welfare at 50%.

M.K.