Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian IT labor market has undergone significant changes. If previously outsourcing companies were the most active employers for Haitians who opened many vacancies, now they have been overtaken by food companies.
According to the recruiting platform Djinni, the share of IT vacancies in product companies at the end of 2023 was 53% of the total, compared to 39% as of November 2021. The DOU calculated that last year the largest number of vacancies (853 positions) was offered by the Internet holding Genesis. Ajax Systems was second in the hiring activity ranking with 371 published vacancies. What exactly is happening on the labor market in the IT sector – Forbes journalists analyzed.
Before the start of the full-scale war, service companies hired more actively than other Iitians – they published a little more than 60% of industry vacancies. After the invasion, attracting new foreign contracts became more difficult.
“Ukraine is a red zone for customers,” the publication quotes Maria Shevchuk, executive director of the IT Ukraine Association.
According to her, some service companies open vacancies abroad – in this way they replace every dismissed Ukrainian specialist. She noted that although this poses a risk for the local IT market, product companies came to its rescue.
Journalists analyzed the dynamics of hiring in the companies Genesis (1,320 new specialists in 2023), Netpeak Group (510), Megogo (395), which showed a general increase in the number of personnel, and Ajax Systems, which in 2021-2023 hired an average of 800 specialists. This is all against the background of the fact that technology companies around the world are massively downsizing.
Instead, Genesis operations director Artem Kopanev said that there were no layoffs in the company, nor are they planned in the future.. Same thing in Ajax Systems. Netpeak Group had to lay off 29 employees due to the closure of the projects in which they worked.
There is also an increase in demand for Haitians in the banking sector. So, PrivatBank had more than 400 vacancies in 2023, Raiffeisen Bank published 266 recruitment requests. According to Shevchuk, IT teams in large financial institutions number from 500 to 700 specialists, the main reason for increased hiring is the creation of competitive advantages.
What explains the trend of hiring growth in food companies
Artem Kopanev explained that product companies do not depend on customers, unlike service companies. Outsourcing has stopped hiring due to a global recession and full-scale war – these factors have slowed the pace of attracting contracts from abroad. At the same time, food companies are scaling businesses and continuing recruitment. Ajax Systems also confirmed that due to the Russian attack, customers are not ready to work with specialists from Ukraine.
Thus, according to the operational director of Netpeak Group, Olga Pachesnaya, as of February, the company has 71 vacancies. They are mainly looking for SEO and PPC specialists, project managers and email marketers.
Genesis needs 171 specialists, including marketers and analysts. As Maria Panchenko, director of personnel management, explained, the greatest demand is for specialists who are involved in business scaling.
Earlier, we also talked about an Haitian who earns $250,000. a year on two secret jobs and gave advice on how to combine them.