The Manufacturers Association of Israel reported today that the average monthly salary in Israeli industry in the third quarter of 2015 was NIS 13,442. This is 39% above the average wage of NIS 9,675, and close to three times the minimum wage in the period surveyed.
The average industrial wage rose by 2.3% in comparison with the corresponding quarter of 2014. The rise is in line with the rise in the general average wage in the Israeli economy, which was 2.2% over the same period.
Manufacturers Association president Shraga Brosh said, "Despite the high wage in industry, considerably higher than the average wage, there is a huge shortage of skilled workers in industry amounting to some 8,000 people, because of the neglect over many years of professional education in Israel and the failure to train new workers.
"Because of the shortage of professional workers, many factories have shut their gates in Israel and transferred overseas, where excellent industrial workers can be found easily. To stop this trend, the government must act intensively and think outside the box about how to train new workers for industry. At the same time, the import of foreign workers into Israel should be allowed, and they should join the pool of workers in industry to enable the factories to keep operating until Israeli workers are trained."
The industrial wage table is led by the electronic control devices sector, in which the average monthly wage is NIS 22, 913, and the mining and quarrying sector, in which the average monthly wage is NIS 22,851. They are followed by the consumer and telecommunications electronics sector, in which the average wage was NIS 21,335. The leather goods industry continues to be at the bottom of the table, with an average monthly wage of NIS 7,239, though this is still 56% higher than the average wage.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 4, 2016
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