The average wage of an Israeli employee rose by 5.1% in 2024, compared with 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reports. Even after inflation is taken into account real wages rose by 1.9%.
From a long term perspective, the average real wage in Israel has risen by more than 30% from 2011, although falling slightly in 2022 from 2021, probably following the Covid pandemic but rising again at a significant pace in 2023 and 2024. The number of jobs, on the other hand, increased only slightly by 0.7% in 2024 compared with 2023.
The labor market remains tight
Initial estimates for January 2025, which are considered relatively accurate, paint a less optimistic picture. The average wage in January 2025 was only 2% higher than the average wage in January 2024, so this is actually a real erosion in wages, considering the inflation that, due to tax increases, was 3.8% over this period. In fact, the wage in January for Israeli workers fell slightly and was only NIS 13,385, although a fall in wages between December and January is considered normal. On the other hand, in terms of the number of jobs, there was a significant 3.4% rise compared with January 2024, so the labor market continues to be particularly tight.
Wages in the tech rose even faster in 2024, averaging NIS 31,858 per month in 2024, up 6.8% from 2023. The number of jobs increased by only 0.8%, similar to the average in the rest of the economy, so the proportion of tech jobs stays at 10% of all jobs - in other words there are about 400,000 tech employees.
The number of foreign workers increased by 9.5% in 2024, partly due to the absence of Palestinian workers who are blocked from entering Israel. The most dramatic changes were in agriculture, where there was an increase of 13.8% in foreign workers, and in construction, where there was a 71% jump. Even so, this is still not enough to compensate for the loss of tens of thousands of Palestinian workers, because the number of jobs for workers from abroad increased by only 13,000.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 4, 2025.
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