Study Says Be’er Sheva Businesses in Trouble

Over 13 percent of businesses in Be’er Sheva are in danger of closing, according to a study by investment analysts Dun and Bradstreet. This year’s 13.25-percent risk of closure – which means that one in seven businesses in the city are not expected to survive the next year – means that the risk has grown since 2015, when the risk level was 12.38 percent.

The study indicates that it’s not just Beersheva businesses that are in trouble; businesses in 10 of 12 cities in southern Israel are also at great risk of bankruptcy. Among the cities where risk was about 10 percent or more were Ashkelon, Netivot, Ofakim, Kiryat Malachi, and Eilat. Businesses in the Bedouin town of Rahat had a 25-percent risk of closure in the coming year – more than anywhere else. Only in two cities – Sderot and Kiryat Gat – was the risk of closure less this year than last.

“The data from the study is worrying, as it is the municipalities that are left to deal with the aftermath of closed businesses,” said the report’s authors. “Among the effects of closed businesses is an increase in unemployment, a reduction in property values in city centers, a loss of income from taxes, and more.”

Among large cities, Tel Aviv is considered “very safe,” with a business having a 92.62-percent chance of surviving one year or more there. Hod Hasharon is the “safest” city for a new business to operate in; there, the chance that a business will fail within the next year is just 5.5 percent.