In September 2021, the number of vacant jobs in Israel reached a record high of 137,500, after having fallen to a low of only 37,000 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, and compared to an average of 95,400 in 2019 (before the pandemic). The economy has indeed shown positive growth, but not to the extent that can explain such a sharp jump of 44% in the number of vacant positions.
For most of us, the intuitive conclusion is that there is a shortage of thousands of computer programmers, engineers and technicians for the hi-tech sector. But a look at Central Bureau of Statistics data reveals a significantly different picture. It is true that the number of unfilled positions for engineers and programmers topped 14,000, along with another 4,000 vacancies for technicians; but all of these taken together account for only 15% of the demand for workers.
So what workers are employers looking for? The answer is quite…
