The average salary of Israeli employees fell to NIS 13,506 ($3,647) in April 2024, from just over NIS 14,000 ($3,780) recorded in March, according to data released this week by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
This represents a 7.3 percent increase over April last year, but a notable decline from the previous month. Preliminary estimates for May indicate a further decline, with the average wage reaching NIS 13,093 ($3,535).
In addition, the number of salaried positions in April stood at 3.965 million, a decrease of 0.2% compared to March and 0.8% compared to April 2023.
The high-tech sector also saw a significant slowdown after several months of increases and records. The average salary in this sector was NIS 31,976 ($8,634) in April, an 8% increase from last year, but down from the record average of NIS 35,870 ($9,685) recorded in March. The number of salaried positions in high tech was 398,400, a decrease of 0.2% from March 2024, but an increase of 0.6% from April 2023.
The biggest drop in average wages in the high-tech sector was recorded among employees in the programming and IT consulting sector, whose average wage fell to NIS 32,737 ($8,839) from NIS 38,308 ($10,343) the previous month. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, this sector accounts for more than 50 percent of high-tech employees. Research and development workers earned an average of NIS 34,380 ($9,283), while employees in computer, electronics and optical manufacturing earned an average of NIS 33,309 ($8,993).
By sector, the highest average salary in March was in the information and communications sector with NIS 30,576 ($8,256), followed by financial and insurance services with NIS 29,274 ($7,904) and the electricity and water sector with NIS 21,859 ($5,902).
At the bottom of the wage scale for March were employees in the hotel and restaurant sector, with an average salary of NIS 6,289 ($1,698) per month, followed by various service workers earning NIS 6,474 ($1,748) and workers in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector (excluding artists) with a gross salary of NIS 7,356 ($1,986) per month.
