Over 8,000 tech professionals have left Israel since the war began
Innovation Authority report reveals surge in relocations as industry faces first decline in a decade.
The year 2024 is the first in over a decade in which Israel’s high-tech industry has contracted, according to new employment data from the Israel Innovation Authority. The report reveals that after a period of stagnation beginning in 2022, the number of high-tech employees declined by approximately 5,000 in 2024—marking the first such drop in at least ten years.
According to the report, the total number of high-tech employees in 2024 stood at 391,000, a 1.2% decrease compared to the previous year. The analysis estimates that between the outbreak of the war in October 2023 and July 2024, approximately 8,300 high-tech workers left Israel for a year or more—around 2.1% of the high-tech workforce.
Meanwhile, the share of high-tech employees as a percentage of the total workforce has remained flat at approximately 11.4%—unchanged over the past three years, after more than a decade of steady growth from 2012 to 2022.
"“At a period where we’re facing security, political, and economic challenges, the data points to challenges that require immediate attention: stagnation in employment, a change in the mix of positions, and an increase in the volume of relocation,” said Dror Bin, CEO of the Innovation Authority. “To ensure the future of Israeli high-tech, a combined effort of the government and industry is required – investment in human capital, improving skills, returning employees who left Israel, and expanding business activities here in Israel."
The stagnation is not uniform across all sectors of the industry. While overall employment has declined, roles in research and development (R&D) have grown—rising to more than half of all high-tech employees by 2024. In contrast, headquarters and product-related roles have continued to shrink.
A particularly striking data point is the geographical distribution of employees. Private Israeli high-tech companies now employ nearly half of their R&D personnel abroad, despite Israel’s comparative advantage in this field. Moreover, around 75% of business operations staff—such as sales, marketing, and customer support—are also based outside of Israel. Altogether, R&D and business operations account for roughly 80% of total employment in these companies.
The figures underscore a trend of global dispersion. In 2023 alone, private Israeli high-tech companies hired approximately 4,500 R&D professionals and over 2,000 business operations employees abroad.
The report also shows a notable shift in the composition of the high-tech workforce. The share of employees working in R&D rose from 37% in 2012 to about 50% in 2024. While the number of headquarters and product employees increased by 44% over the same period, their relative share fell—indicating that growth in the sector is concentrated in highly technical roles, requiring advanced education and skills.
Meanwhile, the wage gap between high-tech workers and the broader economy has continued to widen. In 2024, the average monthly salary in high-tech reached NIS 32,300—approximately 2.8 times the national average. This is largely due to the increasing concentration of high-paying R&D roles and the decline in administrative or headquarters positions.
Despite the growing share of overseas employees, the majority of new hires in 2024 were still made in Israel: 59% of recruitment by private high-tech companies occurred locally. Of the roughly 390,000 high-tech workers in Israel, about 250,000 are employed by Israeli high-tech companies—both private and public—while approximately 90,000 work in multinational firms. An additional 50,000 are employed in IT services and tech support roles.
A new analysis included in the report highlights the scale of the workforce gap between Israel and other countries. Private Israeli high-tech companies employ a total of 430,000 people—190,000 in Israel and 240,000 abroad. Public companies employ around 260,000 workers, but only 60,000 of them are based in Israel. These figures underscore the significant potential for expanding domestic employment in high-tech, and point to the need for a strategic reassessment of how to strengthen Israel’s local innovation economy.
