Alarmed by loss of jobs to India, Israel explores options
By agencies   |   Monday, 18 April 2005, 19:30 IST
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JERUSALEM:Israel has already lost 3,500 jobs to India in the hi-tech sector and stands to lose more with local companies preferring to outsource part of their work there, business daily Globes reported. Heads of several hi-tech companies participated in a discussion of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Education and Culture Committee, amid rising concerns over the issue, the daily added. India has become a high-tech superpower, with established companies in software, computer, support, and other knowledge-intensive industries. Israeli companies are also making use of cheap and well-trained labor in India, the daily said. The nearly one-fourth cost of engineers and support personnel in the industry has forced most of the companies to outsource their work to India in order to stay competitive, it said adding the rate for Indian engineers is $13 an hour. The Bank of Israel statistics in the sector indicates a 12 percent growth in output and software exports, nearing $3 billion, for 2004, but the rate of unemployment remains high at 10.4 percent.

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