I am not much of a believer in statistics, as they can be used to show pretty much whatever you want, along with the reader rarely knows what was actually asked, and in what context, of the respondents.
Yet Ladaat, a Haredi website, published a set of statistics regarding haredim in the workforce, and one of the points stuck out in my mind.
For the whole article with all the various stats, see Ladaat.
The one I want to point out is that they say 46% of Haredim who are in the workforce say that if they came into a large amount money and would not need to worry about parnassa they would go back to learning Torah full time.
I was surprised by that number. not by how high it is, as we tend to romanticize the workplace as if ti is so wonderful to go to work, but by how low it is. Considering how the Haredi community romanticizes the kollel I would have expected more than 46% to say they would go back to it if they could.
46% saying they would go back to learning full time means 54% are saying even if they hit the jackpot they would not go back to learning full time.
I like to think that if I hit the jackpot I would want to go back to learning full time, but I know I would not. I don't have the ability to sit and learn for that long, for that amount of time and at that level of focus and concentration to really go full time learning. Perhaps half day, but I know full day would not work out well.
46% saying they would return to it means that a lot of people are going to the workforce not just because they need the parnassa (parnassa is the overriding factor that finally pushes someone out of kollel and into the workforce), but because they also realize that they are not cut out for full time learning. It is not easy.
Realize that it's 46% of a self-selected group of Haredim, which is not representative of Haredim in general.
ReplyDeleteSpecifically, it's 46% of Haredim in the workforce. These are people who have made a decision to leave Kollel. Some of them completely by choice, while others felt that they needed to (please don't start an irrelevant sub-discussion of whether "feeling the need to work" is a choice; you know what I mean, and if it makes you feel better, substitute a different phraseology in your head). But either way, no one who decided to stay in Kollel is represented in that group. The ones who feel that they are cut out for full-time learning are doing just that.
Assuming that the unemployment rate among Hareidi men is 65% (based on a Google search, might not be completely accurate), and that most of the unemployed Haredim are in Kollel, and thus do consider themselves cut out for full-time learning, that means that 46% of the 35% of Haredim who are employed, or about 16% of all Haredi men, don't see themselves as cut out for full-time learning. Not ideal from a Haredi point of view, but not too shabby either.
On the other hand, there's the tendency for people to give answers based on what they think is a "correct" or expected answer. Thus, many of the 54% of people who said that they would return to learning full time might be fooling (or covering for) themselves. There also may be a substantial group of Haredim in Kollel who don't feel that they are cut out for full-time learning, but also, for reasons passing understanding, feel that they don't have the tools to do anything else, so stay in Kollel by default. These people are not taken into account here.
the whole post is included in your caveat, because I wrote 46% of Haredim in the workforce.
ReplyDeleteThe whole discussion is regarding the 46% of those who already left kollel and are working.
Doesn't shock me. I wonder what the guys in kollelim would (truthfully) answer. Even avreichim are paid to do what they do. How would they manage without that money? Guys that leave kollel for parnasa reasons often just have greater financial needs or can't handle learning all day, or some combo of both. It's a totally flawed system and I can't believe it's made it this far into the recession without collapsing.
ReplyDelete