Israeli high-tech salaries dip

high-tech
high-tech

Paradoxically, high demand is leading to lower pay, as companies compromise on less experienced hires, says v.See's Merav Laifer.

Is the Israeli high-tech party about to end? 2015 was a record year for fund raising, but the turmoil on the capital markets is already giving rise to expectations of a downturn in 2016

Placement company see.V has released figures for the final quarter of 2015 that do indicate a change in the trend. Salaries in the high-tech industry rose from the end of 2014 till September 2015, but in the final quarter of last year the average salary fell.

see.V's figures indicate that the average monthly gross starting salary fell 4% from NIS 24,630 in the third quarter to NIS 23,650 in the fourth, after rising by almost 10% over a period of just over a year.

Although the average salary fell, the company finds that the number of new jobs that opened rose by 6% in the fourth quarter in comparison with the third quarter.

see.V CEO Merav Laifer sees a link between the fall in salary and the rise in demand for workers. "The growing need for development people of the first rank is hard to meet when the entire industry is growing rapidly, and there is extensive hiring in all disciplines," she says.

"A situation has come about in which in order to fill jobs, employers are willing to be flexible for a change, and not insist on substantial experience. Both young start-ups and established companies are displaying a readiness to compromise. And so they rush to sign up candidates with two years' experience for jobs for which until not long ago they were demanding five years.

"Accordingly, companies are also demonstrating greater openness to investing time and effort in training candidates who are not perfectly suited to all the demands of the position. And since everything has a price, this leads to a fall in the salary levels of the selected candidates," says Laifer.

In the fourth quarter of 2015 there was especially high demand for mobile developers, particularly for experts in the iOS and Android operating systems. The number of such programmers hired shot up 40%, but they had less experience, and so the average salary fell 4% to NIS 22,500.

The rise in demand has made companies try to head hunt "passive candidates", people in work who are happy with their jobs. Laifer says in this context, "At any given moment we have more than a thousand positions open, and teams of dozens of customer managers dealing with them. Everything in the industry happens very quickly these days, because it's a candidates' market, and anyone who blinks misses out.

"In order to cope with the flood of jobs and the tough competition for every talented person, we take care to reach the candidates very early, through extensive activity on the web and an especially rewarding members' club. At the same time, we, and our competitors too, strive to shorten the hiring process for our customers. As a result, in many cases a candidate signs a contract and turns up for work less than two weeks after sending us a CV."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 26, 2016

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016

Orit Strook  credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post Finance C'ttee approves NIS 300m coalition funds distribution

The money will mainly go to Religious Zionist party minister Orit Strook's Ministry of Settlements and National Missions.

Dangoor Academy  credit: British Embassy in Tel Aviv British Embassy showcases Israeli healthcare startups

The nine startups participated in the Dangoor HealthTech Academy, a program that connects Israeli startups with the UK healthcare system.

NextVision Stabilized Systems  credit: Shlomi Yosef/Tali Bogdanovsky Next Vision shareholders make NIS 230m exit

A British hedge fund has bought a 2.5% stake in the stabilized cameras company.

Energean CEO Mathios Rigas at the Israel Business Conference   credit: Shlomi Yosef Energean's $1b gas fields sale at risk

The sale of the energy company's asset portfolio in Egypt, Italy and Croatia may fall through because of the buyer's difficulties with the Italian regulator.

Kela Technologies founders Jason Manne, Hamutal Meridor, Alon Dror and Omer Bar Ilan  credit:  Yosef Haim Alterman Defense tech co Kela raises $39m

In response to the events of October 7, Kela has developed a platform for rapid integration of commercial technologies into military systems.

Benjamin Netanyahu  credit: ‎Alex Kolomoisky, Yediot Aharonot Firing the Shin Bet chief: The hurdles

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has "lost trust" in Shin Bet head Ronen Bar. Will this be enough to overcome legal challenges to his dismissal?

Emiliano Calemzuk  credit: PR CEO and "investor group" buying out Reshet 13

CEO Emiliano Calemzuk and the other investors will hold 74% of the television channel, while Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries and WBD will remain with 26%.

Inflation  credit: Tali Bogdanovsky Unexpectedly low February CPI reading cuts inflation

While inflation in Israel in the 12 months to the end of February 2025 is lower than forecast, housing prices continue to rise.

Yitzhak Tshuva credit: Gidon Levy and Tali Bogdanovsky Competition Authority allows Delek takeover of Isracard

The Competition Authority is considered the easier of the two regulatory hurdles that the deal must overcome, the other being the Supervisor of Banks.

David Amsalem  credit  Noam Moskowitz, Knesset Spokesperson's Office Rafael to pay state NIS 444m dividend

The minister in charge of the Government Companies Authority, David Amsalem, has approved the payment by the defense company.

Barak MX air defense system  credit: IAI IAI profit jumps 55%

Israel Aerospace Industries posted a net profit of $493 million for 2024, and ended the year with an all-time high orders backlog of $25 billion.

A TSG system in tactical use  credit: PR TSG signs cooperation agreement with US defense co

The agreement includes the integration of TSG's advanced technologies into sensor-based defense systems, which will be integrated into the operational systems of US defense units.

Bria CEO Yair Adato credit: Kseniia Poliak Israeli visual generative AI co Bria raises $40m

Bria’s Visual Generative AI platform empowers businesses to create predictable, controllable, and on-brand content that aligns with their visual language.

Amnon Shashua and Aviram Ziv credit: Eyal Izhar OrCam stymied by investor dispute with Shashua

Demands by institutional investors are blocking the visual and hearing impairment device developer's recovery plan.

Work on the Green Line credit: Bar Lavi Egged wins tender to operate TA light rail Purple, Green Lines

NTA awarded the tender to Egged, which already operates the Red Line, despite government ministry opposition to one operator for the entire network.

Gabi Seroussi illustration: Gil Gibli Board chooses Seroussi as IAI chair as Erdan freezes candidacy

Israel Aerospace Industries board chose Gabi Seroussi as chair even though he did not to go through the preliminary process of the Government Companies Authority appointments review committee.

Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018