EARN HIGHER YIELDS, 4.75%, MONEY MARKET* The Jobs Are Gone Labor-intensive industries are drying up in Israel while hi-tech companies scramble for qualified workers. NECHEMIA MEYERS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS VISIT ONE OF OUR LOCATIONS NEAR YOU! Sterling BERKLEY • (810) 546-2590 BIRMINGHAM • (810) 646-8787 CLAWSON • (810) 435-2840 ROCHESTER • (810) 656-5760 bank &trust SOUTHFIELD • (810) 9484799 W. BLOOMFIELD • (810) 855-6644 "We create solutions."® ANNUAL PERCENTAGE YIELD EFFECTIVE AS OF 11/15/96. RATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. 'MONEY MARKET: S2,500 MINIMUM BALANCE REQUIRED. STATEMENT FEES MAY REDUCE EARNINGS IF MINIMUM BALANCE IS NOT MAINTAINED. 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As a result, the Ki- tan textile plant there has closed down, as have many other labor- intensive enterprises. Only 300 people are now employed in the town's industrial zone, where a few years ago some 3,000 came to work. It's exactly the opposite in the hi-tech field, where tiny Israel has become a world power. Today, some 2,000 hi-tech firms already operate and more are opening all the time. Moreover, a fair number of them, with annual exports of $4 billion, have aroused the interest of foreign investors. In 1996 alone, 18 Israeli enter- prises of this type sold shares in the United States, more than from any other foreign country. Also last year, Applied Materi- als, a chip-equipment manufac- turing giant in California's Silicon http://www.rust.neti-mvsionestop.htm or e-mail us at mvsgrustmet Detroit's Premiere Custom Clothier Since 1949 • Bench made Suits • Custom Alterations • Accessories • Custom Made Shirts 271 Mr..tift • a ckzi Custom Made Suits from $525 Custom CInthier (81 0) 646-0535 Workers in Israel prepare a building site. ° Valley, paid $285 million to buy two Israeli companies that make equipment used to detect flaws in chips. High-flying Intel began building its third facility in Israel, a $1.6 billion plant that will man- ufacture memory chips. Everything would be rosy were it not for the fact that Israeli hi- tech firms are finding it increas- ingly difficult to recruit the talented personnel required to im- prove old products and develop new ones. The onset of this problem was delayed during the period of mass aliyah from the former Soviet Union, when 4,000 excellent en- gineers entered the country in a relatively short period of time. They had a good grounding in mathematics and physics, and they soon learned western oper- ating methods. But that source of supply has dried up and Israeli academic institutions aren't fill- ing the gap. So manpower-hungry compa- nies are signing up engineers and computer experts who are still in school and, at the same time, try- ing to steal good people from one another. This doesn't always help them, but it certainly helps the newspapers, all of which regular- ly carry 10-20-page supplements with want ads for hi-tech person- nel. The only real solution to the es- timated shortage of 3,000 engi- neers, technicians and program- mers is to train more of them on the one hand and to bring back ex- patriate Israeli experts on the oth- er. Both approaches are being pursued and, hopefully, will event- fially provide the people required for Israel's booming hi-tech in- dustries. Much more difficult to alleviate is the problem faced by commu- nities that are economically de- pendent on declining traditional industries. For while there is great sympathy for the men and women who have lost their jobs in Beit She'an and elsewhere, there is lit- tle prospect that they will find new ones in the foreseeable future. ❑ Job Shift Is Inevitable Finance Minister Dan Meridor welcomes the transition from old-style to new-style economic ent,erprises. Speaking recently at a Tel Aviv University forum, IVIr. Meridor declared: "It is under- : standable that we should take pride in products that are (IVIade in 1441,' But we can't ignore the fact Sgt we are a small country with a limited local market. So'` we must learn to specialize in what we do best and import goods that are better and cheap- , :.,er than we can produce here.7..