Engineers, Sales Lead In-Demand Jobs, Not High-Tech

New data from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) for June-August 2026 reveals the most sought-after professions in the Israeli labor market. Engineers topped the list with an average of 11,161 monthly job openings, followed closely by sales workers with 10,785 openings. Waiters and bartenders also showed high demand, with 8,795 vacancies.

Software developers, a key high-tech role, had 6,202 openings, while other in-demand professions included kitchen and cleaning staff (6,015), truck and bus drivers (5,581), and caregivers (5,361). The report also highlighted a decline in job openings for certain sectors compared to the previous period (May-July 2026).

The most significant drops were seen in kitchen and cleaning roles in institutions and households, which decreased by 14%. Telephone sales representatives saw a 13% decline, and waiters and bartenders experienced a 9% drop. Even high-tech roles showed some weakening, with software developer openings down 9% and engineers down 7%.

Conversely, some professions experienced an increase in demand. Network technicians saw the largest rise, with a 20% increase in job openings. Caregivers also saw a 5% increase, followed by engineers and technicians (4%), cooks (3%), and drivers (2%). Sales workers also registered a 2% increase.

Overall, the total number of job openings in Israel decreased in August to 142,949 from 146,133 in July, with the vacancy rate dropping from 4.40% to 4.30%. Despite this, the unemployment rate fell to 2.8% in August from 3.1% in July, though labor force participation and employment rates also saw slight decreases.