Tech market overview
Ukraine has one of the biggest IT markets in Europe
Only Poland has more tech experts than Ukraine (450,000 compared to 300,000). Ukraine has 1.5 times more engineers than Romania, the Czech Republic, and Hungary (up to 200,000 in each country) and lots more tech talent than Bulgaria, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. Ukraine and Poland are about equal in the number of companies that hire outsourcing, both being bigger than other European countries.
Ukraine’s tech scene key numbers
285,000
IT specialists in 2021 (according to "IT Ukraine" association)
$6.9 billion
in export revenue (according to Ukraine’s National Bank)
38% growth
of the IT industry in 2021 compared to 2020
$8.5 billion
expected export by the end of 2022 (+20% compared to 2021)
Demographics
- Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Dnipro are the main cities in Ukraine where most IT specialists work
- The average age of these specialists is 29 years
- 25% of IT specialists are women and 75% are men.
- 87% have a University degree
- 58% are self-educated
- During martial law, only women can leave the country; men are mostly not allowed, with some exceptions.
Technologies and English proficiency on the market
Over the past 15 years, Ukraine's IT market has been increasing gradually because more universities are providing STEM courses and people are moving from other areas to IT. Every year, about 15,000 new technical professionals graduate from universities. However, the majority of specialists in the market are middle-level and senior-level engineers. The Ukrainian tech community is also known for its strong English language skills, which makes it easy for Ukrainian engineers to join international teams.
When it comes to tech in Ukraine, JavaScript, Java, PHP, Python, .NET, and C++ are the most used.
On djinni.co, you can also find lots of tech-experienced testers, designers, marketers, and HRs.
The distribution of IT specialists by seniority as of 2022
- Junior: 17%
- Middle: 35%
- Senior: 31%
- Lead: 17%
75% of IT specialists speak English at an intermediate level or higher
How the market works, the main differences between the Ukrainian and the EU&US markets:
- Ukrainian job market salary expectations are listed in monthly equivalents AFTER taxes, not BEFORE like in the EU and US
- IT contractors use a 5% tax system
- Median salary of a tech specialist in 2022 is $2,500 according to Djinni.co
- 87% of IT specialists work as B2B contractors
- 65% of companies on the market provide outsourcing and outstaffing services, 35% develop their own products
- 1/3 of specialists have experience working in companies with more than 1,000 employees in size
Hiring process and benefits
- 90% of candidates are open to considering remote offers;
- The job market moves quickly; most candidates are ready to start a new job within two weeks of getting an offer.
- The hiring process usually consists of 2-3 interviews (general, technical, getting to know the team)
- The higher the level of the engineer, the less likely it is that they will work on an unpaid test task
- Most of the time, it doesn't take more than 1-2 weeks from the first interview to the offer.
- At the moment, men cannot cross the border due to martial law, so they won’t be able to relocate to the EU and the USA for on-site roles
- On the Ukrainian IT job market, some of the most common benefits that companies offer are paid laptops and reimbursement for setting up a workspace, health insurance, paid technical certification and courses, 14 paid vacation days, and 10 sick days per year.