A UN aid agency report says unemployment in Gaza is at over 45%, one of the highest rates in the world.
The Palestinian territory is entering its fifth year of a full Israeli blockade by land, air and sea.
The study found that by the second half of last year, real wages had fallen 34.5% since the first half of 2006, when sanctions were imposed by Israel after Hamas won control of Gaza in elections.
The UN says the full on blockade began a year later.
Gaza has a population of more than 1.5m, mostly spread along the 40km coast of the enclave between Israel and Egypt.
'It is hard to understand the logic of a man-made policy which deliberately impoverishes so many and condemns hundreds of thousands of potentially productive people to a life of destitution,' UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees spokesman Chris Gunness said.
UNRWA provides food staples and schools for Gaza's refugee population. The enclave has no airport or seaport for freight.
The UN has recently asked countries to dissuade those pro-Palestinian groups with plans to break the blockade by sea in so-called 'international humanitarian aid' flotillas that Israel says are simply politically motivated provocations.
