Strengthening demand boosts high-tech salaries

high-tech employees
high-tech employees

CPS JOBS CEO: “Every day more start-ups come to us asking to recruit programmers.”

In 2014, $3.4 billion was invested in 688 Israeli technology companies, one of the largest amounts invested in the history of high tech in Israel. Funds raised totaled 46% more than 2013, when $2.3 billion was raised by 659 companies. Most of the growth was in investments raised in the second half of 2014, which brought about this record, and the accelerated opening of 2015. All these investments have created huge demand for high-tech employees.

A mobile-web developer with up to two years of experience earned a monthly salary between NIS 14,000 and NIS 18,000 in the first quarter of this year. As experience rises to 2-5 years, salaries increase to between NIS 18,000 and NIS 24,000. A UI/UX developer with up to two years of experience earned between NIS 10,000 and NIS 15,000. Salaries go up to the NIS 15,000 to NIS 21,000 range with five years of experience.

Java and C++ developers with up to two years of experience earned between NIS 15,000 and NIS 18,000. With 2 to 5 years of experience, salaries rose to NIS 24,000. A product development manager with up to 5 years of experience earned between NIS 18,000 and NIS 30,000. With more than 6 years of experience, salaries jump to between NIS 27,000 and NIS 32,000.

At the start of the year, and in only two days, more than $100 million was raised by start-ups. PayPal decided to establish a global information-security center in Israel, and to that end acquired Israeli start-up CyActive. Until now, foreign investments were made mostly by US investors, such as mega-companies Amazon and Dropbox. Recently, however, new financing sources have opened from new channels and have yielded new foreign investments from India and China, such as Alibaba and Baidu. These investors see Israel's tech scene as strategic resource to be mined and invest both in funds, and directly in Israeli start-ups.

The growth in demand in the high-tech market represents a tremendous growth engine for the Israeli economy. The total number of high-tech employees is currently estimated at 9% of workers in Israel, and these jobs afford far greater economic security, job security, and quality of life than most other industries in the economy. According to Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) data, there has been a slowdown in the growth in the number of jobs in the Israeli economy: in 2014, the number of jobs grew 2.2%, compared with an average of 3.8% in 2010-2012. In high-tech, however, we see an opposite trend - a sharp rise in demand.

“At CPS JOBS today, we deal with thousands of high-tech positions, and every day new jobs open, and more start-ups come to us asking to recruit programmers,” says CPS JOBS CEO Ofra Afgin-Hadad. However, this rise in demands in the market is met with limited supply of professionals, stagnation in the number of university graduates in technological fields, the retirement of tech workers who immigrated from the USSR a few decades ago, an increase in demand for experts in niche-tech fields, and an increasing demand for workers who are willing to work foreign hours, and to risk job security at small start-ups. As a result, the recruitment process for tech positions has become more complicated and challenging for tech companies.

Demand trends

The primary demand today comes from Internet, security, mobile, storage, and big data companies, with an emphasis on cloud storage. The most significant demand is for algorithms, with a significant increase in demand for NLP, data mining, and ad optimization professionals. The rising demand trend is for experts with rich experience in very specific fields, such as Java Web, Linux Kernel, Angular Big Data, and Low Level programming.

Platform-independent development

The trend of transitioning from Windows environments to open-code development systems is growing. What in the past accounted for maybe 1% of the market is today the majority. Today, demand for cross-platform products (web and mobile) increases demand for specialization in hybrid systems.

As a result, demand for Linux knowledge is moving from the field of development, and the demand for experience in the field applies to support and systems staff as well. As a result of this trends, we see a significant drop in demand for positions in Microsoft development environments (C# and ASP.net), in favor of positions in Java Web and Open Source programming.

Academic excellence or employment experience?

Two trends in demand for graduates of technical degrees may be noted. The first is companies that will not compromise on high university grades (at least 80-85), even years after graduation. This trend is mostly for software development and algorithm jobs. These companies hold certificates of excellence from Israel’s top educational institutions, and they are willing to invest a great deal of money for this. CPS JOBS salary-survey data indicates that an outstanding graduate without any experience may receive job offers of up to NIS 20,000 a month for development positions. These companies are willing to provide full training, in addition to the high salaries, to top graduates.

The second trend is demand for graduates with technical degrees who have experience beyond their studies, in part-time jobs or side projects in high-tech. Some experience in development environments indicates an ability to combine tasks, as well as diligence, in contrast to those who invested in only one task - their studies.

Ofra Afgin-Hadad said, "2015 opened with rising wages and tremendous demand that a significant portion of high-tech companies are unable to answer to without the help of high-tech placement specialists. We expect the year to continue with fundraising trends and increased competition for programmers and engineers with at least two years of experience.”

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 26, 2015

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015

high-tech employees
high-tech employees
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