- July 7, 2026
- 4:39 pm
- Israel
The Israeli Employment Service published a new report on the state of employment in Israeli high-tech and for the first time directly linked developments in the industry to the mass adoption of artificial intelligence.
This is a fresh report published on July 7, 2026, about the impact of AI on employment in Israeli high-tech.
The report covers the period from 2019–2026 and shows not just a temporary market cooling, but a deep change in the demand structure for workers.
The main conclusion sounds alarming: the share of high-tech job seekers among all registered with the Employment Service has almost tripled.
If at the beginning of 2022, before the launch of ChatGPT in November of the same year, they accounted for about 4% of all job seekers, after the mass spread of generative AI, their share rose to about 9%, and now reaches about 11%.
High-tech no longer looks like a market that is simply “waiting it out”.
In May 2026, about 16.3 thousand high-tech sector job seekers were registered in Israel.
For comparison: in 2019, the average monthly figure was about 7.7 thousand people. That is, the number of high-tech workers looking for jobs has more than doubled.
The Employment Service emphasizes: Israel has previously experienced periods of sharp unemployment growth, such as during the coronavirus pandemic or military crises. But the current picture is different in that the growth in the number of high-tech job seekers has become stable and structural.
This is not about a short shock, but a new state of the market.
At the same time, high-tech itself has not collapsed.
In 2025, about 404 thousand people were employed in the industry. This is more than in 2024, when the figure was about 391 thousand, and more than in 2023, when there were about 396 thousand workers in the industry. But the Employment Service points out: if the previous growth trajectory had continued, by the end of 2025, the number of employed in high-tech could have been about 461 thousand.
So the problem is not a complete collapse of the industry.
The problem is that the previous hiring pace has stopped.
Israeli high-tech continues to be a crucial part of the economy, but it no longer absorbs workers as it did during the years of rapid growth.
The blow did not only affect juniors.
Until recently, the high-tech employment crisis was often explained by the difficulties of novice specialists.
The market became tougher, companies hired fewer employees without experience, and graduates of courses and universities faced closed doors.
The new report shows that this picture is already incomplete.
Yes, workers with up to four years of experience still make up a significant part of high-tech job seekers — about 60%. But their share is decreasing. In 2023, specialists with up to four years of experience accounted for about 74% of all high-tech job seekers.
The change is even more noticeable among the very beginners: workers with up to two years of experience accounted for about 49% in 2023, and now — about 31%.
At the same time, the share of more experienced employees has sharply increased.
Since 2023, the number of high-tech job seekers with 5–8 years of experience has grown by about 138%.
And among workers with more than eight years of experience, the growth was about 181%.
For comparison: among employees with 0–4 years of experience, the growth was about 43%.
This is one of the most important conclusions of the report.
The crisis can no longer be described only as a problem for young specialists who are not given their first job. It has already affected people with significant experience, real skills, and years of work in the industry.
For Israel, this is particularly sensitive.
High-tech has long been considered a sector where experience, English, technical knowledge, and high productivity almost guarantee a stable place in the labor market. Now even this guarantee looks weaker.
Why software was hit hardest
The Employment Service separately analyzes the professional structure of job seekers.
Since 2021, the share of software profession workers among all high-tech job seekers has been steadily growing. In May 2026, about 7.9 thousand out of 16.3 thousand registered high-tech job seekers were related to software professions. This is about half of the entire group.
The breakdown by profession for May 2026 looks like this:
Software development — 7,951 people, about 48.65% of all high-tech job seekers.
Engineering and sciences — 3,125 people, about 19.12%.
Management, sales, and design — 1,697 people, about 10.38%.
Data and networks — 1,344 people, about 8.22%.
IT infrastructure and support — 1,279 people, about 7.83%.
Electrical, electronics, and communications — 947 people, about 5.79%.
It is the software professions that have been most associated with the growth of AI.
The Employment Service cautiously formulates the conclusion: the growth in the number of job seekers began even before the mass entry of artificial intelligence into the labor market, but there is a strong correlation between the expansion of AI use and the increase in job seekers in the software segment.
From 2022 to 2026, the number of job seekers among software profession workers with high professional exposure to AI grew by about 18%.
In other high-tech professions, which are also considered highly susceptible to AI influence, the growth was only about 3%.
In other words, AI does not just “help programmers write code faster”.
It changes the very economy of hiring.
If one employee with new tools can do more, companies need fewer people for the same tasks. This does not eliminate the demand for strong specialists, but makes the market more selective and less tolerant of the average level.
NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency notes: for the Israeli audience, this is not only an economic news but also a social signal. High-tech was one of the main channels of upward mobility — a path to high salaries, stability, and integration into a strong economic sector. If this channel narrows, the consequences will be felt not only by developers but also by families, universities, retraining courses, cities around tech parks, and the entire tax system of Israel.
Forecast until the end of 2026
The Employment Service expects that the number of high-tech job seekers will continue to grow throughout 2026, although the growth rate may be gradual.
According to the forecast model, in June 2026, the central forecast is about 16,187 job seekers.
By August, due to seasonal factors, the figure may rise to about 19.7 thousand, with the upper forecast limit estimated at about 25.3 thousand.
By December 2026, the central forecast is about 16,750 job seekers, with an upper limit of about 25,532.
This means that the market may stabilize, but not necessarily return to the previous model.
Rather, Israel is entering a new phase: high-tech remains strong but becomes a less massive employer for those whose skills are quickly automated or standardized.
What the Employment Service says
The Director General of the Israeli Employment Service, Inbal Mashash, stated that the report clearly shows: the labor market in high-tech is undergoing a deep change.
According to her, artificial intelligence, along with economic and structural changes in the industry, is changing the demand for skills and employment models. The Employment Service already sees that changes affect not only novice workers but also experienced specialists.
Mashash emphasized that in the AI era, the ability of workers to adapt their skills to the new reality becomes one of the key drivers of economic growth.
The Employment Service states that it is developing programs that should help workers make a professional leap and return to the growth points of the Israeli economy. One approach is the integration of high-tech job seekers into technological positions in non-technological industries.
This is an important point.
The Israeli economy may need not only developers within startups but also technological specialists in medicine, education, industry, logistics, defense, municipal management, and the financial sector.
If these transitions work, part of the crisis can be turned into an economic renewal.
If not, Israel will get a new group of highly qualified people who are too expensive for the old market and too vulnerable for the new one.
Why this is important for Israel
High-tech is not an ordinary industry for Israel.
It provides the country with exports, taxes, international capital, technological reputation, and high-paying jobs.
But the new report shows: even in Israel’s strongest industry, a painful restructuring is underway.
AI does not look like a fantastic threat from the future. It is already affecting real careers, real families, and real salaries.
It is especially alarming that experienced specialists are under pressure. This means that the problem is not limited to “poor preparation of juniors” or an excess of course graduates. The market is reassessing the value of entire skill sets.
For the state, this is a question not only of employment but also of strategy.
If Israel wants to maintain its status as a Startup Nation, it will have to quickly restructure the professional training system, support retraining, develop the applied use of AI, and help specialists transition between sectors.
Otherwise, the country risks getting a paradox: strong high-tech at the macro level and growing instability among the people who built this high-tech.
Source: Israeli Employment Service
https://www.taasuka.gov.il/infoandpublications/pressreleases/pressrelease070726/
If it’s important for you to see the Israeli-Ukrainian agenda without the Russian lens — add NAnews to Google.
https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=news.nikk.co.il