In January 2025, exports of IT services dropped to $489M, down $19M compared to the same period in 2024. This marks the worst start to a year since the onset of the full-scale war. While the Ukrainian IT sector experienced annual growth of 14.7% from 2017 to 2019, it has recently seen slowdowns due to the pandemic, the full-scale invasion, and economic instability. The number of companies in the sector fell by 25% in 2022 and has yet to return to 2021 levels.
Industry experts are evenly split on their opinion that the market is stagnating. The contributing factors include military risks, reduced orders, and the freezing of projects. Despite maintaining uninterrupted communication, moving operations, and establishing backup offices, Ukrainian companies are losing contracts. Nearly 58% of companies have faced contract terminations, and 25% reported losses exceeding 40% of their income.
Declining demand, fewer orders, and heightened risk have all impacted salaries. About 68.2% of experts believe salaries will not increase, and over 50% predict that the decline will persist for another one to three years following the war’s end.