During the 1990s, the Israeli economy experienced two major events. First, starting in the fall of 1989, a large wave of relatively highly skilled immigrants arrived from the former Soviet Union (CIS) increasing the population and the labor force by considerable magnitude. Second, the hi-tech sector has grown substantially and reached a peak in growth and level in 2000.

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the integration of immigrants from the CIS in the Israeli labor market and, specifically, in the hi-tech sector. Based on a unique panel data that follows immigrants for up to 12 years in Israel we find a significant positive correlation between immigrants’ participation in Israeli government-provided training programs and the propensity to work as professionals in the hi-tech industry and to work in white-collar occupations in other sectors. However, this correlation diminishes with ‘time since participation’ such that recent participants face a higher probability to work in hi-tech and white-collar jobs than those who participated in training earlier.