An Israeli lawyer who specializes in representing high-tech companies from around the world recently returned from a work trip in Silicon Valley. The heroine of our story lived in the Valley for several years and had professional relationships with the most important global players in high-tech, including venture capital funds managing tens of billions of dollars in aggregate. "The situation in the Valley is not good," she says, "and it's only a matter of time before the shock waves reach Israel. When the US catches cold, Israel get pneumonia, and now I'm concerned."
The lawyer, who asked not to be named, is of course not alone. Thousands of Israelis who do business all over the world are anxiously monitoring the global high-tech industry. The challenging economic situation in China, sluggish growth in the US, and Britain's decision to leave the European Union - all these macro factors adversely affect the willingness of investors to take risks. There is talk around the world of a slowdown, and commentators point to the difficulty in floating technology companies and at the fact that startups are raising money at lower valuations than in previous rounds.
What is happening at this stage on the local Israeli high-tech scene? At present, companies are continuing raise money at an astonishing rate. So far this year, Israeli startups have raised some $2.3 billion (an annual rate of $4.6 billion). If this rate continues, 2016 will become the best ever year for high-tech and knock 2015, which currently holds the title with fund raising totaling $4.4 billion, off its pedestal.
Almost unchanged
All is not rosy however. The second quarter of the year ends this Thursday, and job placement See.V paints a mixed picture of the situation in the high-tech industry. The data indicate that the average monthly gross salary in the industry is practically unchanged from the first quarter, at NIS 23,931, almost exactly the same as the first quarter figure of NIS 23,975. See.V points to another number, however, which is the number of new jobs in the second quarter, down 7% on the first quarter.
Commenting on the decline in the number of new jobs, See.V CEO Merav Laifer said, "Time will tell whether this is a slowdown or whether the market is undergoing a rebalancing. We are certainly seeing companies that are failing to meet their forecasts and are being closed, large companies that are freezing recruitment, and recruitment processes that are taking a little longer than in the past. On the other hand, salaries are unaffected, and have been stable since the start of 2016."
The stability of the average salary hides several changes in different branches of the industry. On the positive side, the average salary of C programmers has jumped 9.2% to NIS 26,000. Another field that has seen a notable change, this time negative, is DevOps, where the average salary has dropped 9.5% within one quarter, to NIS 25,792.
See.V has examined the integration of women in high-tech professions, and the results are not encouraging. Only 8% of those taken on in software in the first half of 2016 are women. "In meetings with companies that are recruiting, the subject of recruiting women comes up often," says Laifer, "but there is still a very long way to go to close the traditional gap between men and women in high-tech."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 28, 2016
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