The Dire State of Israeli Small Business

If you think your business is challenging, imagine what it must be like to be a small business in Israel.

Small businesses represent over 97% of all firms in Israel. They constitute the only sector to have created new jobs in the last decade.

Yet, look at the economic challenges that Israel faces: growing poverty, ongoing credit crunch, technology market crash, recession, high unemployment, the Intifada....

The impact of the Intifada has been particularly devastating on small businesses, especially tourism-related businesses. This chart outlining the drop in small business revenues in Jerusalem illustrates how hard they've been hit economically:

From the January 2005 report by the Milken Institute: "Building Israel's Small Business and Microenterprise Sector" (requires free registration).