Electricity and water supply workers earn most
01/07/2013 23:17
CBS estimates that the industry with the highest average salary is in the category of electricity and water supply.
electricity line old Photo: Marc Israel Sellem
Set aside visions of high-rolling bankers and financial gurus – the Central
Bureau of Statistics has set the record straight.
Tucked into its wages
report for October 2012, released on Monday, the CBS estimated that the industry
with the highest average salary was in the category of electricity and water
supply. Covering all employment having to do with the creation and distribution
of electricity and water, monthly wages in the field averaged NIS
21,746.
That was a full 56.4 percent more than finance (NIS 13,903), the
next-highest of the 13 divisions the CBS uses to classify employee wage
data.
The food services industry, on the other hand, had the lowest
average wages, with workers earning, on average, NIS 4,342 a month.
A
deeper look into the data showed that certain sub-categories also earned a
pretty penny; Control and supervision of industrial equipment for medicine and
science paid out NIS 20,836, and research and development in real estate and
business paid an average of NIS 20,351.
The data, however, represented
industrial classifications, not specific professions, and only covered wages
paid out by employers, a CBS spokesperson said. People earning income from
business investments or company ownership, for example, would not be included in
the data.
The report found that overall wages in Israel between August
and October rose an annualized 1.8% in constant prices, landing at an average of
NIS 8,800. Although still positive, the increase was lower than the 3.6% jump
registered from May-July, suggesting a downward trend.
Close to 100,000
foreign workers, representing about 3% of the work force, earned average
salaries of NIS 4,949, some 43.7% less than their Israeli brethren.
The
report also showed the total number of jobs in the economy increasing 1% to 3.08
million. The industry with the biggest job gains was education, which added a
whopping 6.1% to its payrolls, while health and – you guessed it –electricity
and water supply also added substantial numbers to their ranks. Building, on the
other hand, saw a 4.6% drop in the number of positions, followed by
transportation and food services.
Of all the jobs in the economy, the
report found that government work represented some 18.3% (at 564,600 jobs),
while the vast majority of employees, 66%, earned their daily bread in
non-financial firms.