American-Israel Chamber of Commerce

CRM Software – Jerusalem-based provider of powerful tools that combine Customer Relationship Management with Business Intelligence for small and medium-size business.  Can be downloaded from the Internet, works fully within Microsoft Outlook, and with multiple management dashboards and analytical tools including graphs, statistics, reports, scheduling, and cost.  Seeking investment.

Search Engine – Jerusalem-based company develops and implements an innovative interactive search engine for online searches and yellow pages.  Provides consumers with exactly what they need and when they really need it, utilizing proprietary algorithms.  Seeking investment and introduction to AT&T, Verizon, Google, Yahoo, etc.

Police Cooperation – Netanya-based company has developed an innovative information sharing and intelligence analysis solution that enables a wide variety of data from disparate local police departments to be consolidated into a central repository. Authorized personnel use the system’s advanced analysis capabilities to expose relationships between people, incidents, vehicles, phones, locations and other entities, leading to additional suspects and sources of information.  Seeking a US partner to approach law enforcement agencies in the Southeast.

Internships – Tel Aviv University’s Recanati School of Business is offering its students a greater international experience through its Summer MBA Internship program, and invites interested American businesses to participate.  Typical internship involves a 2-3 month working period in a US company, sometime between July and September, with exact times and work details to be determined by the interning company who will pay the student enough to cover living costs and travel expenses and will help with documentation for visas. Students specialize in marketing management, real estate management, strategy and entrepreneurship, finance and accounting, decisions and operations research, technology management and information systems, and organizational behavior.

2005: An Exceptional Year for Employment

Total employment in Israel
(absolute quarterly changes, seasonally adjusted)

With less than three weeks to go (at the time of writing) until the general election on 28 March, there does not seem to be much interest in current economic developments. One of the reasons for this is that the economy seems to be chugging along very nicely, thank you – so why worry?

One of the major indicators of economic macro-prosperity is the increase in employment. In fact, employment is more important for labor market analysis than unemployment, even though the latter is what most analysts monitor.

2005 was a plum year for employment growth. Overall, employment growth reached 3.9%, with an additional 30 thousand added, on average, each quarter. The final quarter of 2005 even saw a jump in construction employment, a possible sign of initial recovery in this sector.

Growing employment indicates increasing demand for labor, and increasing demand for labor indicates optimism on the part of employers regarding prospects for continuing growth – otherwise why should they take on more workers.

On the other hand, we must not forget unemployment, which continued to decline during 2005, but at a much slower pace than in 2004: the rate of unemployment remained at a high 8.8% in the final quarter of last year.

Should this dampen our enthusiasm regarding the employment increase? Absolutely not: it is not unusual in a period of initial recovery, for unemployment to decrease less fast than employment is increasing.

The reason for this is connected with the third major variable in labor market analysis – labor force participation. Basically what happens in a recovery is that an increasing number of people, who previously have not been working, enter the labor force to find work, on the assumption that there is more work to be had if the economy is recovering. Most of these new labor force participants will find work (thus the increase in employment), but others may not be successful and will end up by restraining the decline in 2005.

This explains exactly what happened in 2005 – a large increase in labor force participation, a limited decline in unemployment.

This is textbook stuff for a labor market coming out of recession: we need not be too worried about the very mild decline in unemployment last year.

Now that we know this, we can go back to trying to decide who to vote for on 28 March. That’s a more difficult question.

Provided as a service to AICC by I-Biz – Israel Business Information Services Ltd. For more information on I-Biz information services, visit www.i-biz.co.il or contact info@i-biz.co.il.

• Google is establishing an R&D center in Israel to be opened in Haifa during Q2 ’06 as part of the company’s rapid expansion in the US and international markets, according to an interview in Globes.
• The Meytav incubator in Kiryat Shmona has been named Israel’s most “Outstanding Technological Incubator” for 2005.  The privately-held entity is a joint venture of Bioline Rx, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Pitango, and Giza among others.
• Yokneam-based Medvision scored well on a preliminary clinical trial to test the efficacy of its device for diagnosing skin cancer.  The company has filed an application with the FDA for approval of the product.
• Sun Microsystems has agreed to acquire Aduva, a Ramat Gan-based start up that develops solutions for managing Unix and Linux enterprise computer systems.  Closing is expected in Q4.
• Yakum-based Metalink has announced an alliance with Japan-based Renesas, a joint venture of Hitachi and Mitsubishi, for integration of their broadband wireless and wireline networks processors.  Metalink maintains an R&D office in Norcross, Georgia.
• The United States was the top destination of Israel’s industrial exports, excluding diamonds, in January with a total of $634 million according to the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute.  It was followed by the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy.
• For the first time in a decade, Israel’s unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 8.8% of the civilian labor force in Q4 ’05, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.  The workforce expanded by 93,000 for the year including 54,000 full-time jobs and 39,000 part-time.
• Israel’s Agricultural sector has shrunk by 1/3 in the past decade according to the Israel Farmer’s Federation.  30,000 were employed in agriculture in 1995 compared with 19,000 in 2005.
• 112 “graduate” companies of Israel’s technology incubators raised $175 million in 2005 including $75 million in first rounds, according to the Ministry of Industry & Trade.  62 new ventures were launched in the incubators last year, with over 1,000 since the program began in 1991.
• The Economist predicts Israel’s GDP will grow 4.3% in 2006, the same projected growth rate predicted by the Bank of Israel, but higher than the 3.9% forecast by the Ministry of Finance.

The 2006 US / ISRAEL VENTURE SUMMIT

March 21, 2006 | IDT Headquarters | New Jersey

A highly productive full-day venture conference, The US/Israel Venture Summit™ is dedicated to showcasing US investors committed to funding early stage and emerging Israel start-ups.

This exclusive summit will feature a distinguished line up of more than 20 VCs on interactive panels, a showcase of up to thirty companies seeking funding, company presentations and high-level networking opportunities.

The AMERICAN-ISRAEL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, SE REGION has made special arrangements for our network to receive a special discount of 10% off of the “early bird” registration savings.

To Register Now and Save up to $300 off the on-site fee and receive the special discount, register online and use “aiccse” as the discount code.    To register by phone call Rivka Benjamin at 718.477.2208.

In addition to providing access to leading Corporate Investors, the conference will feature up to thirty pre-screened early stage companies seeking capital, and hardcore networking.