Only 360 junior employees entered Israel’s high-tech industry last year, out of approximately 6,500 university graduates who complete relevant degrees each year. In the midst of one of the most severe crises the industry has faced, young people are confronted with dwindling chances of integrating into what has long been considered the engine of the Israeli economy. Just this week, a special report by the Employment Service revealed that the number of job seekers in high-tech professions has more than doubled, from 7,000 in January 2019 to 15,000 in April 2025, and these figures likely understate the depth of the crisis, as they do not typically include entry-level candidates.
As technology companies increasingly move jobs abroad or prefer to hire only experienced talent, an entire generation of early-career workers finds itself left out. Company initiatives to recruit juniors, train them, and absorb students do exist, but they are little more than a drop in the ocean: a desperate attempt to prevent the emergence of a lost generation.
The juniors’ situation is made worse by a slowdown in hiring and widespread layoffs, combined with the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and the offshoring of many Israeli tech jobs. “Basically, we know that every job opened abroad instead of in Israel represents a loss of about one million shekels a year to the state,” explains Einath McMurray Aharon, a partner at the Portland Trust, which promotes the integration of juniors in Israel’s periphery. She says the rate of high-tech jobs moved abroad has jumped dramatically, from 25% in 2018 to 52% today, calling it “insane damage and a macroeconomic drama.”
This challenge is not unique to Israel. Globally, the rise of AI means fewer tasks require junior-level skills; basic programming and maintenance work can increasingly be automated. In Israel, these global trends are compounded by the ongoing war, widespread reserve duty, and companies’ need to ensure business continuity by shifting operations overseas.
“What’s happening is that AI has caused companies to stagnate their hiring. They are examining every position carefully before recruiting. They don’t want to be ‘suckers’ paying for roles they don’t truly need. Naturally, juniors, at the bottom of the food chain, are the first to be cut, because no one wants to invest time teaching them, and they are perceived as less productive,” says McMurray Aharon. “What we are trying to show companies, and we have seen some success in recent months, is that these juniors are actually AI natives. They grew up with AI, and they are exceptionally fast at learning and applying new tools. We already hear from managers at large companies like Wix, NICE, Monday, Amdocs, and Nova that juniors coming through our programs are introducing AI to teams and even teaching senior staff, bringing innovation and creating value.”
Source – https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/xgkjv7ipy