Tech Job Market in Ukraine, April 2023 Update

Intense competition lowers salary expectations

The impact of the global economic recession has added to the stress factors for the Ukrainian tech industry. The volume of IT exports decreased by almost 30% in January compared to the previous month, and some companies have announced layoffs. Yet, the IT industry has shown remarkable resilience and continues to operate amidst the ongoing war. 

Welcome to the April edition of Djinni's report on the IT job market in Ukraine. All the numbers are based on user activity on Djinni, Ukraine's biggest tech job marketplace.

Key points:

• There are 8.5 candidates online for an open job.

• Monthly published candidate profiles increased by 45% YoY.

• New jobs decreased by 30% YoY, except for senior positions.

• Salaries for senior tech professionals are down by 10%.

• Number of reported hires is almost at the level of January 2022, recovering from a slump in the winter.

• Hiring of non-technical positions increased from 16% in Q1 2022 to 20% in Q1 2023.

• Job applications hit a new record of 327K in March.

• 26% of the candidates on Djinni reside outside of Ukraine.

There are 8.5 times more candidates than jobs

As of the beginning of April, there are 82K candidates in search (+6.5% compared to the previous quarter) and 9.5K jobs online (-2% to the last quarter).

Although it may not seem like a significant growth, the number of candidates online increased by 10K in the last two months. 

Note: Since the beginning of March, Djinni deactivated nearly 20,000 candidate profiles who hadn't visited the website for 90 days. Previously, profiles were automatically removed from search if a candidate did not respond to messages within a week. Due to the current job market, we have had to apply new rules.

The share of junior candidates is increasing

Senior candidates still make up the largest group on Djinni, representing 31% of all candidates (down from 34% last quarter). The percentage of candidates without experience has grown slightly from 21% to 22%. The group with one or two years of experience has seen the most significant growth rate, with a 13% increase this quarter.

Candidates without commercial experience struggle with fierce competition 

There are almost 300 novice QAs who compete for each job. For beginner developers, the ratio is one job for every 135 seekers, with JavaScript and Python being the most competitive languages to start with. Designers and artists also face a highly competitive job market.

The “Other” category includes mostly non-technical positions

The competition is less intense for middle-level than for senior positions. Marketing specialists and DevOps with 2-5 years of experience seem to be in higher demand and face less competition. Many senior candidates tend to apply for jobs that require less experience than they have.

Salaries of senior tech candidates are down by 10%

Candidates state a desired salary in their profiles. These are the median salaries of hired tech candidates. 

Salary expectations of top tech candidates have decreased since Q1 of last year. 

In January-March 2022, half of the hired candidates were asking for $4.5K monthly if they had 5-8 years of experience, or $5.5K if they had more than 8 years of experience. In 2023, these numbers are almost 10% lower. 

Reported hires in March are higher than in the previous six months

The number of hires is gradually recovering after the winter slump. 

In March, there were almost 1200 reported hires on Djinni, which is 12% more than in February. This is roughly the same level as January 2022, which was the last full month before the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine.

Senior candidates make up about 35% of reported hires with no significant change over the year. The percentage of hires without experience dropped from 16% to 11%.

Hiring for non-technical roles increased from 16% in Q1 2022 to 20% in Q1 2023. This group includes categories such as Marketing, Sales, and HR.

Published profiles up 45% YoY largely due to reactivation

In March 2022, 15K candidates entered the search, either by reactivating their profile or creating a new one. By March 2023, this number had increased to 21K.

The number of new registrations is roughly the same as it was a year ago, with about 6,100 new signups (compared to 7,500 in the summer). The percentage of new candidates among published profiles has dropped from 35% in December to 28% last month.

New jobs quarterly down 30% YoY, but not for senior positions

In March, recruiters created more jobs than in the previous two months: 10K vs 9K. But the quarterly number of new openings has decreased by 30% year over year, from 41.8K to 28K. This decline has affected all experience levels except for senior positions. As a result, the share of jobs for senior candidates grew from 16.5% in Q1 2022 to 25% in the last quarter.

Compared to the previous quarter, in 2023 companies publish more vacancies for Marketing, Sales and Product Managers. Yet, JavaScript remains the most popular category. 

Top 5 categories in jobs created this quarter: JavaScript, Marketing, Java, Sales (climbed from 9th to 4th place) and DevOps. The Node.js category experienced the biggest decline: from 5th to 8th place.

The upper end of the salary range for tech jobs decreased by $500

Since September 2023, the median top end of the salary range for technical jobs has decreased from $5K/month net to $4.5K. The lower range has remained stable at a median level of $3K.

This decline in potential salary mostly affects middle-level jobs that require at least 2 or 3 years of experience. Senior tech jobs (requiring 5+ years of experience) still offer a salary range of $4-6K. You can check a specific category here. 

Candidates send 4x more job applications than receive propositions from recruiters 

In March, candidates sent a record-breaking 327K job applications, while recruiters wrote only 79K propositions inviting candidates to check job opportunities. Although this is more than in February, the number of propositions is still lower than in any given month in 2022.

All the applications in March were written by 34K candidates (out of 80K+ who are currently searching for a job). The median number of applications per candidate is 4, and only 8.5K candidates applied for more than 10 jobs in a month.

The majority of applications (55%) were submitted by candidates with 1-3 years of experience. Nearly 20% of all applications in March were submitted by top candidates for jobs that require less experience.

As for the propositions, about 50% of them were received by senior candidates. This share hasn't changed much in the last year. But unlike a year ago, even senior candidates send more applications than they receive propositions. 

On average, a senior candidate who has been active in the last 30 days sent almost 6 applications during that period, but only received 2 or 3 propositions from recruiters. For less experienced candidates, this proportion is even worse.

Categories that currently receive the largest portion of propositions are: 

• Marketing — 9.7% of recruiters’ messages in 30 days 

• PHP — 9%

• JavaScript — 8.6%

• Sales — 7.9%

• Java — 6%

• DevOps — 5.83%

Average response rate is 36%

Because of the low number of propositions, candidates now reply to a bigger share of them. You can expect a response rate of 36%. Candidates who are actively looking for a job will open their contacts to 50% of propositions regardless of experience.

Remote trend: a slight increase in office jobs 

The share of office and partly remote job vacancies is slightly higher in March than it was a year ago. These two options now comprise 18% of job opportunities, compared to only 10% in April of last year. Of the jobs created last month, 43% are fully remote and 39% give candidates the option to choose whether they want to work from the office or home.

26% of candidates on Djinni are from outside Ukraine 

While the majority of candidates on Djinni are from Ukraine, the share of foreign candidates has grown from 20% to 26% over the last six months. The most popular countries, apart from Ukraine, are Azerbaijan, Poland, and Nigeria. 

Almost 9% of all candidates online reside in the EU.

Foreign candidates represent approximately 12-15% of the monthly hires reported on Djinni. The most popular locations for hiring candidates are Poland, Azerbaijan, and Spain.

Conclusions

The gap between candidates searching for a job and available positions has been growing for 18 months at an accelerating rate. 

Entering the IT market is becoming increasingly challenging for new candidates. Even while seasoned professionals are restarting their job hunt and lowering their salary expectations. However, for companies seeking a highly skilled talent pool at a relatively low cost, this situation can be beneficial.

Despite the challenges, there are signs of recovery, such as a gradual increase in reported hires and more vacancies being published for marketing and sales professionals.

If you are hiring now is the best time.

Thank you for reading.

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