52% of the high-tech companies reported a decrease of their employees hiring

No less than 52% of the companies in the high-tech service industries reported in the first half of 2023 a reduction in employee hiring compared to the first half of 2022. This is according to the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics published on Monday.
The company managers were also asked about the main cause of the economic damage to their company in the last six months. According to CBS, the most significant cause of the damage was a decrease in demand for their company's product (about 36% of the companies defined it as such), followed by difficulties in raising venture capital (about 20% of the companies). These data are consistent with several reports recently published by the Authority The innovation and other bodies.
According to the report of the SNPI Research and Policy Institute, the last quarter was the sixth in a row in which there was a decrease in total investments, which stood at only about 1.7 billion dollars - the lowest figure since the beginning of 2018. In fact, since the record recorded in the last quarter of 2021, with investments reaching 9.2 billion dollars, the same downward trend that began due to the slowdown all over the world in 2022, and continued due to the instability in Israel due to the legal revolution legislation, is recorded.
The CBS states that compared to other service industries, the high-tech service industries are more affected by the global situation, the increase in interest rates, and uncertainty. Even in companies from the non-high-tech service industries, there was an increase in the percentage of companies that reported reductions. However, this estimate remains significantly lower than the high-tech service industries and stood at About 21% of companies in the first half of 2023.
The data shows that large companies report fewer reductions compared to small and medium-sized companies. However, even in these companies, there was a trend increase throughout the period.
Only about 33% of the companies reported that they had not suffered any economic damage in the last six months, and according to the data, the economic damage was more concentrated in small and medium-sized businesses.
According to the reports of the managers of companies in the high-tech service industries, in the last six months, there has been a decrease in the number of employees who leave the company voluntarily. In the non-high-tech service industries, there was no such decrease, and the CBS notes that this difference reinforces the difference in the economic environment between the two industries.