A boom in pay in the high-tech sector has pulled the average salary in Israel upwards. Central Bureau of Statistics figures released today show that the average monthly employee salary (excluding foreign workers) reached NIS 10,867 in March this year, up nearly 6% from the February figure of NIS 10,255, Globes reports.
Three-month trend figures show that the rate at which pay is rising in the Israeli economy accelerated in the first quarter of this year. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the average salary rose by an annualized 5.2% (in real terms) in the January-March period, which compares with an annualized rise of 3.9% in October-December 2017.
The outstanding sector is IT and communications, covering most of the high-tech industry. The average monthly employee salary in these industries shot up by an annualized 12.6% (in nominal terms) in the period January-March 2018, following on from an annualized rise of 5.8% in October-December 2017. Pay also rose sharply in the real estate industry in the first quarter of this year, by an annualized 12%.
The sharpest fall in pay was in central and local government and the National Insurance Institute, where average pay fell by an annualized 4.6% in January-March, following a 68% annualized fall in October-December 2017.