Hard times hit high-tech Anglos

Anglo employment advisers are reporting a rise in calls as high-tech layoffs mount with the latest news that NDS cut dozens of people from its work force. "Of course my phone was ringing more often this week," said Helen Har-Tal, a Tel Aviv based job developer for the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel. "It was the first time this week that I had immigrants in the high-tech industry calling me to make appointments."

Har-Tal added that she received calls by people who had already been fired but also by veteran workers who are expecting to be laid off in the near future. "People tell me their companies are downsizing and that they can see the writing on the wall." Among the anxious Anglos who contacted her were both new and veteran immigrants, some employed at their company for several years. She figured about 25 to 30 percent of Anglo job seekers in the country's center are looking for work in the high-tech industry.

Daniella Slasky, director of employment at the immigration assistance group Nefesh B'Nefesh, puts the rate of recent immigrants from English-speaking countries looking for work in the high-tech field even higher, about 35 percent.

"We have definitely seen an increase in people getting laid off from their hi-tech positions," she told Anglo File yesterday. "Over the last several weeks, I had about 15 to 20 immigrants calling me about this. The situation of immigrants is basically similar to what's going on the general job market."

One of several high-tech companies that recently announced cutbacks, was Jerusalem-based NDS. About 35 percent of the company's estimated 1,100 employees in Israel are native English speakers.

"They're in pain, they're in shock," said a California-born NDS system engineer from Beit Shemesh. "I know about twenty or thirty of the Anglos who were fired. A lot of them had been working for a long time at the company: 10, 12 and even 15 years. Right now, they're still trying to figure out what happened."

The company, which specializes in smart-card technology for paid television access, said press reports that it had fired 100 or more employees in Israel were overstated, and that "dozens of people" would be more accurate.

"I think that the last two quarters we reported were fairly challenging - and this is an understatement," said Raffi Kesten, the COO and VP of NDS, just minutes before boarding a plane to South Korea Tuesday night.

He said the company, located in the capital's Har-Hotzvim industrial zone, mainly laid off employees delivering internal services such as computer assistance, human resources, administration, logistics and training.

However, an engineer at NDS told Anglo File that employees "from all different areas" were fired. She said she knows of seven technical writers as well as workers in the graphics, quality control and integration and testing departments who were let go.