Israel’s jobless rate surged to nearly 10 per cent in October, the Central Bureau of Statistics said. However, the main unemployment rate held steady at 3.4pc last month.

But when taking into account what is expected to be a temporary loss of work, the rate reached 9.6pc in October as 428,400 people were jobless versus 163,600 in September, prior to the Oct 7 attack.

In the wake of the attack, nearly 400,000 Israelis were called up to reserve duty, and official data show that about 80,000 Israelis were placed on unpaid leave in the last few weeks, Reuters reports.

The employment rate in October dipped to 56.5pc from 61.1pc.

The bureau noted that due to the crisis, it needed to make changes to its labour force survey last month, with nearly no interviews taking place the week after the attack while all subsequent interviews were by phone rather not in person.