RAMALLAH - Three quarters of Palestinian government workers are no longer able to make ends meet due to unpaid wages and 22 percent wish to emigrate, a poll published Sunday showed.

"There is a tendency toward the collapse of the employment sector," Samir Hleleh, managing director of British firm Portland Trust, which conducted the survey with the Palestinian Economists Association, told reporters.

"Conditions for employees are extremely bad; this is not a political issue nor is it propaganda. The suffering is real," said Hleleh.

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The poll, conducted in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, studied how government employees have been affected by living without salaries since March, when Hamas took power.

Western donors cut direct aid to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority over Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept past Israeli-Palestinian interim peace deals.

The poll showed 73 percent of 165,000 government employees could no longer make ends meet. Some 40 percent of government workers said they would look for jobs outside government while 22 percent wanted to emigrate.

Hleleh said the survey showed employees survived by borrowing money from friends and relatives, selling property and using up their savings. Most had stopped paying electricity bills and other utility costs.

Palestinian government wages support around a quarter of the population.

Many government employees and teachers began an open-ended strike at the start of this month, demanding their wages. Hamas has accused the workers of trying to topple the government.

The poll showed 95 percent of the employees had stopped paying rent and 91 percent could no longer pay their mortgages.

Salma el-Bazri, one of the economists who conducted the survey, said 65 percent of employees had put off paying their children's school fees, 93 percent no longer bought clothes, 59 percent avoided restaurants and 25 percent had quit smoking.