IT market today: what to expect in 2022, analyzing 2021 trends?

The IT market has undergone many changes over the past 3 years: some companies have switched to full remote for the first time, while the others continued to work at this model, already practicing remote before covid. In this article, we'll overview the current situation in the IT market, given the situation in 2021, and predict what to expect in 2022.

Remote is gaining momentum

The Ukrainian IT market has adapted to the new conditions. According to DOU surveys, most specialists are quite satisfied with the remote, and the number of people on it has doubled compared to 2020. At the same time, one-third of the respondents noticed significant improvements in working capacity, compared to the office. The transition to a remote work format associates both with quarantine restrictions and with the refusal to vaccinate.

Some numbers speak for themselves:

• 71% work at home due to quarantine;
• 12% choose a hybrid model of cooperation;
• 9% were working remotely even before the pandemic;
• 7% regularly visit the office.

Most often, companies choose to work remotely in Odesa, Kyiv, Lviv, and Kharkiv, but the specialists from Dnipro and Zaporizhia (10% and 14% respectively) work from the office. The scale of the business itself affects the percentage of remote workers: the larger the company is, the more willingly it lets employees work remotely.

As before, despite all the comfort of working from home, developers still note frequent overtime, a decrease in physical activity, and some communication difficulties.

Junior specialists rarely work remotely

According to the latest statistics, about half of the vacancies are remote, while, for comparison, in 2019 this number has barely reached 20%. Most of the vacancies for remote work include Front-end-, QA- and Java specialists: ~30% of all offers. They're followed by React Native and .NET Developers.

The level of skills of the developer also influences the format of cooperation. For Junior specialists, only one-third of vacancies involves remote work. As for the Middle and Senior levels, the numbers look like 57% and 63% respectively.

The IT market is experiencing a lack of specialists

In 2021, the number of vacancies in the IT sector increased by 91%, amounting to 50.1 thousand. The number of developers has also increased by 24%, although this still doesn't eliminate the lack of specialists.

DevOps engineers, as well as specialists in cybersecurity, cloud solutions, data protection, and PM, are becoming increasingly in demand. As for programming languages, .NET, Java, and Python are popular, and knowledge of FE React and UI / UX is also welcome. Another specialization that is growing in demand is QA. Just as much attention today is payed to IT recruiters, whose quality of work requires obtaining expertise in technology to find high talents.

The salary level is affected by the stack

Since the beginning of 2021, the salary of Junior specialists has increased by an average of 20-25%, and as for the Senior level, an increase of 30-40% has been noticed here. Еhe list of the highest-paid positions still includes Senior/Lead/Team Lead/Architect positions with a salary level reaching $8 – 10 thousand.

The salary is affected by the stack and the level of the developer, so you can expect the following variations:

• Junior — $300-$1200,
• Middle — $2000-$3000,
• Senior — $3500-$7000.

At the same time, the average salary of an IT specialist is $2,500 per month.

Salary growth by levels for the year looks like this:

• System Architects — $300+,
• Team/TechLeads — $150+,
• Junior Specialist — $100+,
• Senior specialist — $200+.

Average monthly salary rates of Senior level:

• Senior C++ developer — UAH 112,000.
• Senior Python developer — UAH 100,000.
• Senior Front-End developer — UAH 95,000.
• Senior HTML developer — UAH 94,000
• Senior Java Developer — UAH 90,000.

The talent market is going global

There are more vacancies on the market than the developers themselves, and by 2030 the global lack of developers is expected to grow to more than 85 million specialists. Such a shortage complicates the life of recruiters but unties the hands of specialists who want to change jobs. LinkedIn, Djinni, and Jooble are still the most popular platforms for work search as well as personal referrals. The social networks Telegram and Facebook are actively used too.

In fact, most developers communicate with recruiters even if they don't plan to change jobs at the moment. They can change their minds if they're offered an interesting option. Another reason for interviews is to check the current stack and the value of a specialist in the market.

The supply-demand mismatch trend in 2021 is something that will greatly impact employment in 2022. In particular, the talent market is increasingly acquiring global features. This will apply to both sides, which means the relocation will be quite in demand.

Another likely trend is the equalization of salaries for representatives of the IT sector not only in Ukraine but throughout the world. This is what will increase the chances of Ukrainian developers to compete on equal terms with their Western and European counterparts.

Finally, more companies will be interested in opening their schools and internal courses to grow specialists for themselves. Such incubators will immediately increase the loyalty of newly minted developers, and reduce the headache for the human resources department. Also, more attention will be paid to the development and improvement of skills at all levels.

IT companies will have to reconsider ways to encourage developers

As companies' needs for specialists grow and the market is very overheated, small companies may be left without developers who will go to higher salaries in large companies. Perhaps, more foreign developers will appear on the Ukrainian market. If in 2021 this was something new, in 2022 it would be taken into account in the companies’ development strategy. Buying teams also will be popular.

Attention should be paid to Dia.City, and the companies should prepare for the requirements put forward by the action plan to combat base erosion and profit shifting from taxation. This will require constant communication with lawyers, ensuring full compliance with the new laws.

Companies will have to revise the system of rewarding employees, and encourage the internal development of employees in every possible way. It's also necessary to increase the flexibility of the format of cooperation, supporting the aspirations of employees to work-life balance.

An important aspect that will be at the head of all trends in 2022 is cybersecurity. This applies both to the internal processes of companies and to increase the value of such specialists. There's also a lot of interest in green start-ups and initiatives, which may affect the number of such projects.

Thus, in our opinion, 2022 will seek to even out the balance of power over the market. However, more attention will be paid to the developers themselves and their education and income level.