According to initial estimates by the Central Bureau of Statistics, the average monthly gross wage of Israeli workers in April this year was 4% higher than in April 2025, at NIS 14,409. This represents a decline in comparison with the average wage in March this year, when war with Iran broke out, which was NIS 15,921, 8.8% higher than in March 2025.
The reason for the year-on-year rise is not necessarily a substantial rise in pay, but rather layoffs of low-paid workers because of restrictions imposed by the Home Front Command, a phenomenon seen even more strongly during the Covid pandemic. In fact the number of jobs in the economy shrank by 1.6% in April. In March, when the war was at its height, the number of jobs fell by 7.5% in comparison with March 2025. Even in comparison with the beginning of the year there has been a dramatic decline in the number of jobs, from nearly 4.2 million in January to 3.8 million in March.
The technology industry was much less affected by the war than other sectors, and the high pay in that sector is part of the reason that the economy-wide average was skewed upwards, as technology workers remained in their jobs while others were laid off or put on unpaid leave. The average wage in the technology sector was NIS 38,467, 4.3% higher than in March 2025.
The number of jobs in the technology sector was unchanged year-on-year, which meant that for the first time for a long time it surpassed 10% of all jobs, reaching 10.4%.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 4, 2026.
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