Israeli High-Tech Salaries See Sharp Decline Amidst Industry Slowdown

Israel's once booming high-tech industry is experiencing a significant cooling, with average employee salaries dropping notably in July. The average salary in the sector fell by 6.2% to 34,301 shekels in July, down from 36,584 shekels in June, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). This marks a dramatic decrease from the double-digit annual salary increases seen in previous months, with the annual growth rate now standing at just 2.3%. Despite this decline, high-tech salaries remain substantially higher than the national average, approximately 2.4 times greater. Research and development roles led with an average salary of 37,578 shekels, followed by software development at 36,052 shekels.

The slowdown is also reflected in employment figures. The number of high-tech jobs decreased by 0.2% in July compared to June and by 0.3% compared to the previous year, reaching 397,300 positions. This reduction has lowered the proportion of high-tech jobs within the overall Israeli economy to 9.3%, indicating that the slowdown affects not only salaries but also recruitment and active job openings.

Looking at the broader economy, the preliminary estimate for August shows a 0.6% decrease in the average salary for all Israeli workers, settling at 14,448 shekels. However, this figure still represents a 4.2% increase compared to August of the previous year. The total number of salaried positions across the economy saw a seasonal decrease of 2.2% in August, totaling 4.158 million jobs, though this is a modest 0.9% increase compared to August last year.