High-tech’s hidden unemployment crisis: Veteran workers hit hard
Core tech professionals are flooding the job market as layoffs outpace new opportunities.
A report by the Employment Service on job seekers in the high-tech sector, published on Sunday, reveals a severe employment crisis in the industry. The number of job seekers in high-tech professions in Israel has more than doubled (by 112%), from about 7,000 in January 2019 to nearly 15,000 in April 2025. The share of high-tech job seekers among all job seekers has jumped from only 6% in January 2019 to 10.9% in April 2025. The crisis has also reached veteran and experienced workers, employees whom companies are usually very reluctant to let go, and has affected core professions as well.
Since January 2019, there has been an increase of more than 223% in the number of job seekers in database and network sectors, and about 147% in the number of software developers and application analysts seeking work. It is reasonable to assume that the situation would have been even worse if not for the boom in the defense industries, which are absorbing many laid-off employees.
It is important to note that in Israel, registered job seekers are those who file for unemployment through the Employment Service. This distinction is significant in high-tech because many younger employees do not register at all, either because they have not accumulated enough work time to qualify for benefits, or their benefit period is very short. Since many young people work in high-tech, the real situation is likely worse than the report indicates.
The Employment Service report shows that the number of high-tech job seekers rose from 7,058 in January 2019 to 14,955 in April 2025. In September 2023, before the outbreak of the war, the number stood at 12,352 and has since increased by 21%. This is in stark contrast to a 4% decrease in the number of non-high-tech job seekers over the same period.
This phenomenon is part of a wider trend in the labor market over the past two years: the weakening of the strong and the strengthening of the weak. The share of high-tech job seekers among all job seekers fell from 6% in January 2019 to just 5.6% in April 2022, the peak period for demand in high-tech. It then climbed to 8.8% in September 2023, on the eve of the war, and has since reached 10.9% as of April 2025.
The surge in high-tech job seekers began in the second half of 2022, as a correction to the explosive growth during the COVID-19 crisis when the industry hired aggressively. But the fact that the crisis has continued for two and a half years, and that even senior employees are being laid off, shows that this is no longer just a correction. In practice, it is clear that the situation would be much worse if the defense industries were not absorbing a large share of laid-off tech workers.
Meanwhile, the ratio of unemployed people in high-tech to open positions has shifted dramatically. In January 2019, there were 1.6 open positions for every unemployed person in high-tech. By April 2024, this dropped to 0.9, meaning there were more job seekers than open roles. This trend continues in April 2025. In other words, the market has shifted from favoring workers to favoring employers, competition for every high-tech job is fierce. Still, this situation remains slightly better than the ratio in non-high-tech sectors.
Further evidence that this is a genuine crisis is that most of the increase in high-tech job seekers comes from layoffs, not resignations. The number of laid-off high-tech job seekers increased 2.5 times, from 5,767 in Q1 2022 to 14,545 in Q1 2025. Meanwhile, the number of resignations increased only 1.7 times during the same period. As a result, the ratio of laid-off to resigning workers jumped from 3 to 4.8.
The rise in unemployed high-tech workers is even more striking given the relative stability in the total number of employed high-tech workers over the past two years. Innovation Authority data shows that as of 2025, there are 391,000 people employed in the high-tech industry itself and 163,000 working in high-tech roles outside the industry (such as IT departments in non-tech companies), a total of 554,000. Back in 2019, these numbers were 306,000 and 146,000, respectively (452,000 in total), a 22.5% increase in total employment. Yet, the number of job seekers has more than doubled in the same period. Similar trends are seen in Central Bureau of Statistics data: the average number of filled high-tech jobs rose from 323,400 in 2019 to 399,900 in 2025, up about 24%, while job seekers increased by 112%.
A particularly worrying trend is that the increase is concentrated in the industry’s core professions. Since January 2019, the number of job seekers in database and network sectors has jumped by over 223%, and by about 147% for software developers and application analysts. These two groups alone accounted for about half of all unemployed high-tech workers in April 2025. More moderate increases (80–95%) were recorded among technical support roles, while some “traditional” groups, like telecommunications technicians and physics engineers, saw only marginal increases or slight decreases.
Another striking figure: the share of high-salary earners (earning 25,600–43,800 shekels per month) among high-tech job seekers rose from 15% in August 2022 to 40% in April 2025. This shows that the crisis has hit the relatively strong middle class in high-tech, skilled, experienced workers who were highly sought after just two years ago.
Unsurprisingly, the average salary of high-tech job seekers increased by 39.3% between January 2022 and April 2025 (compared to a 24% increase for all employees in the industry). As a result, the gap between the average salary of high-tech job seekers and other job seekers widened from 6,400 shekels in January 2022 to 9,200 shekels in April 2025, a jump of 52%. The average salary of high-tech job seekers now stands at 20,900 shekels per month, compared to 11,700 for other job seekers.
Experience, normally the most sought-after asset in high-tech, is no longer a shield. The most significant rise in job seekers was recorded among 36–45 year-olds, veteran workers. The Employment Service noted that “this finding challenges the assumption that the increase in high-tech job seekers comes mostly from junior employees.” However, the Service adds that many juniors are likely underrepresented in the data because they are younger, have shorter benefit eligibility, or have not yet completed the required training period to claim unemployment benefits.
How long will this crisis last? That depends heavily on how long the war and its economic effects persist. The fact that the defense industries are currently absorbing so many laid-off tech workers suggests that the next crisis could come when global demand for defense products declines and these industries begin laying people off as well.
Attorney Inbal Meshesh, Director General of the Employment Service, said: “This is an increase in the unemployment rate among professional and experienced workers from the core of the industry, who constitute a national asset that must be nurtured and reintegrated into employment.” She added that the Employment Service is working to maximize what demand remains through partnerships with employers.
She noted that since the war began, there has been growing demand for high-tech workers in the cyber and defense sectors. The Service is focusing on helping job seekers adapt their skills to enter these industries, launching training programs in collaboration with the Innovation Authority and employers. These include courses in cloud network management, cyber research, artificial intelligence, software development, and more. According to Meshesh, the emphasis is on training closely coordinated with employers, who help shape the curriculum to meet real market needs.
