News
Ukraine: the current IT labour market
The crisis in Ukraine has generally given the IT sector a wide berth. Since the beginning of this year, its financial turnover has increased by 25%. While that is 15% less than in the same period last year, it is very upbeat news in the current economic downturn.
One of the latest trends in this field is the growing shortage of IT specialists in the provinces as people relocate to take up jobs in the capital. The exodus is spearheaded by young professionals who have recently completed their studies. Rabota.ua, the local job board, investigated to what extent they and their more experienced colleagues are in demand on the labour market.
The survey showed that 36% of IT companies are now advertising one to three positions on average; 52% of IT companies are seeking to fill four or more vacancies. As in the past, there is a manifest dearth of highly skilled professionals. The search for project managers and IT directors is particularly hard-going. The poll results show that the salaries of all scarce specialists have increased by almost a third. Twenty-four per cent of IT companies have decided to optimize their staff structure, with testers and administrators the most likely to be laid off.
In the search for new employees, increasing importance is being attached to the Internet. Nearly two thirds of respondents from IT companies believe that this is the most efficient way to find new workers. The services of recruitment sites are used by 64% of firms. Twenty-eight per cent of companies focus on direct searches and have a penchant for previous employers’ references.
Rabota.ua also examined the preferences of IT job-seekers. For candidates, key factors are the salary (52%), corporate image (20%), and the opportunities for professional development and participation in internal projects (20%).
Most experts believe that demand for IT specialists will continue to grow by around five to ten per cent every month. They point to the increasing number of software development projects, contracts from abroad and a rise in online advertising, which is reporting growth of between 15% and 20% every quarter. There is every reason to assume that in the next three or four years around 250,000 new jobs will be created in the IT sector.
Source: Rabota.ua
12.8.2009