Demand for high-tech employees slumps

Salaries for high-tech workers who are finding new jobs have plummeted.

by Shay Niv
Globes
March 10, 2009

Employment placement company Manpower Israel Ltd. reports that 
demand for high-tech employees was down 32.7% in February 2009 
compared with February 2008. Manpower's subsidiary MIT, which handles 
placements in the IT sector, bases these figures on the number of job 
vacancies advertised in the media and on websites. 

Manpower reports that demand for high-tech employees fell 6.8% in 
February 2009 compared with the previous month and that between 
October 2008 and February 2009 demand dropped 31%. 

The biggest fall in demand was for senior managers, which fell by 63.4% 
in February 2009 compared with February 2008. Over this period the 
demand for project managers fell 37.5%, demand for software systems 
analysts fell 34.2% and there was a 28.3% fall in demand for software 
engineers. Although there was a 16.7% fall in demand for network 
managers and network support staff in February 2009, compared with 
February 2008, there was an 11.8% increase in demand in this sector 
in February 2009 compared with February 2008. 

Employment agencies specializing in high-tech reported that salaries 
for high-tech workers who are finding new jobs have plummeted. 
JobInfo CEO Ilana Achimeir said, "If before the crisis a clinical trial 
manager earned NIS 14,000 per month, today companies are not 
ashamed to offer NIS 9,000. That's a major difference." 

She added, "But there are employers who are nicely maintaining the 
norms from before the crisis."