27. Currently, Gaza has higher unemployment than any other economy in the world. According
to the ILO unemployment database, in 2013 the highest measured unemployment rate of any
country was in Mauritania at 31 percent. In Q4 2014, the unemployment rate in Gaza stood
at 43 percent. The unemployment problem is much worse for young people between the ages
of 15 and 29 years: the unemployment rate for this group exceeds 60 percent. To make things
worse, about 70 percent of those who work in the private sector in Gaza receive less than the
still-not-enacted minimum wage of USD400. Their average monthly salary amounts to a
mere USD174.14 Preliminary estimates by the Bank show that the reduction in Gaza’s GDP
per capita in 2014, caused primarily by the July-August 2014 war, led to an increase in poverty
from 28 percent in 2013 to 39 percent.