Haredi women are entering Israeli high-tech. AI may put them on the front line of its disruption
Their employment rate has climbed sharply, but nearly 70% of Haredi women seeking high-tech jobs are concentrated in software roles increasingly affected by AI.
The employment rate for Haredi men rose from 54% in the first quarter of the year to 56.2% in the second quarter, reaching its highest level since the third quarter of 2023, when it stood at 56.7%. The rate subsequently fell to a low of 52.8% in the third quarter of 2025. The figures appear in a Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) tracking report on government employment targets, recently published on the CBS website.
The employment rate for Haredi men rose sharply from 37% in 2003 to 52% in 2016, but has largely stagnated since then. This stagnation has been attributed in part to the benefits and budget allocations provided by Netanyahu-led Haredi coalitions to avrechim, or young married Torah scholars, encouraging them to remain in kollels, yeshivas for married men.
In August, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Manpower Planning and Administration Division, reported a 53% increase in the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men into the IDF, from 2,811 in the 2024 recruitment year to 4,298 in 2025.
The increase came despite the opposition of most ultra-Orthodox rabbis to enlistment pending the passage of a draft exemption bill. The 2025 figure also came close to the target included in the original draft exemption bill the coalition had attempted to pass, which called for 4,800 recruits in the first year. The figures highlight the significant increase in Haredi enlistment despite the ongoing political and rabbinical opposition to military service.
Meanwhile, a report released today by the Employment Service on unemployment among ultra-Orthodox women in the high-tech sector found that they account for 8.8% of female job seekers in the field, compared with a 5.5% share of women employed directly in the high-tech industry and 6.2% when technology positions across the broader economy are included.
In other words, the proportion of ultra-Orthodox women among high-tech job seekers is roughly 1.5 times their share among women currently employed in the sector.
The number of ultra-Orthodox women seeking high-tech jobs rose by 28.5% between August 2024 and August 2026, compared with an 11.2% increase among non-ultra-Orthodox Jewish women. Nearly 70% of Haredi women seeking work in high-tech are pursuing software-related roles, positions that are particularly exposed to the changes brought about by artificial intelligence.
The employment rate among Haredi women rose from approximately 70% in 2016 to 80.8% in the second quarter of 2026. That is approaching the 83.7% employment rate among non-Haredi Jewish women.
As a result, the focus of efforts to integrate Haredi women into the labor market has increasingly shifted from simply getting them into employment toward helping them enter stable, higher-paying occupations.
According to data from the Israel Innovation Authority, approximately 135,000 women were employed in Israeli high-tech in 2025, accounting for about 34% of the industry's total workforce. Around 7,500 ultra-Orthodox women were employed in high-tech that year, representing approximately 5.5% of all women working in the sector.
That figure is roughly half the share of ultra-Orthodox women in the overall female population, which stands at 11%. In other words, despite extensive attention to the integration of ultra-Orthodox women into high-tech, their actual representation in the sector remains relatively small.
Nevertheless, high-tech employment has particular importance within Haredi society. Women with high-tech training are considered desirable marriage partners in part because their earnings can provide a stable livelihood for a husband who chooses to engage in full-time Torah study as an avreich.
The Haredi women seeking high-tech employment are also considerably younger than their non-Haredi counterparts. Some 64.7% are aged 34 or younger, nearly twice the corresponding rate of 35.5% among non-Haredi Jewish women.
One reason is that high-tech professions have only become established within Haredi society over the past two decades, meaning that most Haredi women working in the sector are relatively young.
The concentration in software has also increased. The proportion of Haredi women seeking high-tech jobs who previously worked in software professions, including software development and application analysis, rose from 59.6% in August 2023 to 69.4% in August 2026. Among non-Haredi Jewish women, the corresponding figure was 47.3%.
The Employment Service report does not explicitly link unemployment among Haredi women in high-tech to artificial intelligence. However, the current high-tech employment crisis has been particularly pronounced in software-related positions, where the rapid development of AI is changing the demand for workers and the nature of the work itself.
That creates a particular vulnerability for Haredi women, whose growing presence in the industry is concentrated in software roles and who, on average, have lower levels of formal academic education than their non-Haredi counterparts.
At the same time, the educational profile of Haredi women entering high-tech is changing. The proportion of Haredi women seeking high-tech employment who have technical or vocational training, such as practical engineering diplomas or professional certifications, rose from 41% in 2019 to 64% in 2026.
However, only 21.5% hold an academic degree, compared with 63.1% of non-Haredi Jewish women.
The numbers therefore point to a complicated transition. Haredi women have made significant progress in entering the broader workforce, and their participation in high-tech has grown. But as the industry changes under the impact of AI, the same concentration in software roles that helped create a pathway into high-tech could leave many of them particularly exposed to the next stage of the labor market's transformation.
