Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor director general Gabriel Maimon told the Knesset Economics Committee that 4,000 high-tech employees have lost their jobs since October, and that the number could reach 15,000. He noted that each high-tech employee supports 4-6 employees in business services sectors. The total cost of these layoffs could reach NIS 12 billion a year.
Economics Committee chairman MK Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beiteinu) said that the government's economic stimulus package made not mention of the high-tech industry. "Even though we get daily reports of more and more layoffs, the plan does not present a sufficient increase in the Chief Scientist's R&D budget, and there is no proposal for dealing with the funding shortage facing companies."
Data presented to the Economics Committee showed that Israel's high-tech industry grew six-fold over the past decade, doubling GDP over this period. High-tech exports amount to half of Israel's manufactured exports. High-tech industry employs 70,000 people directly, such as engineers, programmers, and R&D staff, and 300,000 people indirectly, such as subcontractors, lawyers, accountants, catering and cleaning staff.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 1, 2009
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