The research confirms that what is happening now is not just a transient travel movement, but an organized wave of emigration targeting the most productive and influential groups in the labor market.
The data shows that about one-third of the emigrants are high-income earners and from vital sectors, such as doctors, engineers, technology workers, and scientific researchers, which led to a direct loss estimated at about 1.5 billion shekels from income tax alone, in addition to other uncalculated losses such as value-added tax and corporate tax.
The newspaper points out that the research methodology has debunked the government’s narrative that tried to link this phenomenon to immigrants from the former Soviet Union, as it turned out that the current emigration targets the core of the Israeli economy.
Dangerous leakage in the health sector:
The figures relating to doctors are the most worrying, with 875 doctors leaving during a year and a half, with a net loss of 481 doctors after counting those returning. The newspaper considers the departure of specialist doctors as a direct blow to a system that has been suffering for years from a severe shortage of human resources.
Bleeding in scientific and research capital:
During the same period, the following left Israel:
* 19,000 university graduates
* 6,600 specialists in science and engineering
* 633 PhDs (with a net loss of 224 researchers)
* And more than 3,000 engineers (with a net loss of 2,330 engineers)
The newspaper warns that these figures strike at the “heart of innovation” in Israel and dismantle the foundation on which the hi-tech sector is based.
Who is leaving?
More than 75% are under the age of 40, but what is striking is the rapid increase in those leaving over the age of forty, i.e. those with long experience who are difficult to replace. Researchers consider this a “qualitative shift” that indicates a deeper crisis than just a state of social discontent.
The danger: a deterioration that may not be reversible
In the summary of the report, Calcalist believes that Israel is facing a strategic rather than a circumstantial danger, as “vital systems do not need mass emigration to collapse, but rather a concentrated departure of doctors, engineers and researchers,” which may trigger a spiral of deterioration that is difficult to stop, reaching an economic “point of no return” in which the state’s productive and innovative capacity is eroded.
