JERUSALEM — A report issued Tuesday shows unemployment in Gaza standing at 45.2 percent for the second half of 2010, one of the highest rates in the world, even though Israel eased its blockade of the Palestinian coastal strip in that period.

The report, by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which aids registered Palestinian refugees and their descendants, shows the jobless rate up over the first half of the year, with a loss of some 8,000 jobs.

But it also compared the second half of 2010 with the same period in 2009, a common approach for economies where many jobs are seasonal. That number shows that unemployment fell 1.09 percent, a figure more in keeping with other international analyses of the Gazan economy.

One of the goals of Israel’s economic embargo on Gaza, which began four years ago, was to weaken Hamas and its grip on Gaza. But most of the new jobs last year were accounted for by the public sector, meaning the Hamas government; there was only a slight increase in private commerce.