Temporary particles: demand for open-ended hiring of IT specialists has decreased
The demand for the open-ended hiring of IT specialists in Russia will decrease in 2024, as business has begun to strictly control the budgeting of projects. This was reported by experts of the SkillStaff platform (a marketplace for finding IT specialists). Izvestia analyzed what trends are observed in the employment market and what influences it most of all.
Trends on the market
There is a tendency in the IT market to recruit people more often and bring new employees to the office, Sergey Bolovtsov, director of the Artificial Intelligence Research Center of the Institute of Social Sciences of the Presidential Academy, told Izvestia.
- Of course, the pandemic of covid has radically changed the approaches of companies to the organization of staff work mode: the vast majority of new vacancies are still related to remote work. But employers realize that some employees work more efficiently if they are physically present in the office. This is especially true for team members who need to communicate with each other frequently, which is the case with many startups and new IT projects," the expert emphasized.
Personal communication, he said, is much more productive than remote communication. And often the additional administrative costs associated with it turn out to be justified, paying off due to the increase in productivity of the teams.
Key indicators
The share of IT vacancies with full-time offer remained stably high during 2023 and 2024 - at 95% of the total volume, only at the beginning of this year it slightly decreased, so far to 94%, Headhunter research director Maria Ignatova told Izvestia.
- The share of such vacancies with part-time (project) employment in 2023-2024 was also stable - at the level of 3.7%, at the beginning of 2025 increased to 5.1%. The increase in the number of IT vacancies with both full-time and part-time employment amounted to the same 12% in 2024 compared to 2023. At the beginning of 2025 there is also a decrease in the share of internships for IT-specialists, almost to 0% - in January - early February they were opened only 27, while for the whole 2024 - over 9.2 thousand, it is +26% to 2023, - she said.
There are also changes in the distribution of the proposed work schedule in the beginning of 2025. The share of full-time office-based IT jobs is 64% now, 69% in 2024, and 72% in 2023.
In contrast, the share of remote IT jobs is growing - it is now one in three (33%) vacancies, in 2024 it was one in four, and in 2023 it was one in five.
In general, the number of IT vacancies decreased for the second month in a row: in December 2024 minus 5% to December 2023, in January 2025 minus 11% to January 2024. The peak number of open IT vacancies for two years was observed in October last year - 87.5 thousand. Now their number is 65 thousand, which corresponds to the level of the beginning of 2023.
The number of IT-specialists' resumes has also decreased after the peak in the fall of last year - then there were more than 720 thousand, now there are 648 thousand, but against the background of slowing demand on the market there is a surplus and the competition has increased to 10 active resumes per one IT-vacancy.
If we analyze the number of experienced IT-specialists with strong expertise, there is still no oversupply of such personnel on the market. This is still a job seeker's market, not an employer's, emphasized Anna Kuznetsova, HRD of the federal ETP "TEK-Torg" (part of SPIMEX), in her conversation with Izvestia.
- We are seeing a request from qualified IT candidates for employment on an open-ended basis, and companies are responding to this request in the race for talent. In addition to open-ended labor relations, candidates also take into account the level of remuneration, chips within the social package, development, working conditions and other factors, - said the expert.
In her opinion, the statistics may be explained by the fact that a large number of "juns" who have completed courses and have no practical experience are now looking for a job, while the demand is focused mainly on experienced specialists. It is possible that the "juns" are willing to accept short-term employment, rent and other forms of cooperation on a fixed-term basis.
Reasons for the slowdown
The IT hiring market in Russia has not stopped, but has really slowed down. In 2020-2024, there was a high, sometimes inadequate demand for specialists. This was due to low interest rates: companies actively invested in growth, often not focusing on margins and long-term payback of projects, explained Anton Vasiliev, director of Hexlet IT College, in a conversation with Izvestia. Hiring was "ahead of the curve", and initiatives were created without a thorough ROI assessment.
- With the rise of the key rate, the situation has changed. Purchasing power declined, and companies were faced with the need to be marginal above deposit levels. As a result, investments in new projects declined and the financial performance of already launched products started being reviewed," he observed.
However, according to him, strategic planning for hiring continues.
- We are in close contact with more than 120 of the largest IT companies in Russia and we see that the industry remains focused on the development of human resources," he said. - Business invests in training, educational programs and long-term development of the ecosystem.
Most likely, in his opinion, the current pause is temporary, because companies are reviewing budgets and adapting to new conditions. When the real rate starts to decline, businesses will switch from "earning" to "growth" mode again. This will inevitably lead to increased demand for IT specialists and new opportunities for market development.
The demand, most likely, has decreased for specialists without experience, Mikhail Provizion, co-founder of the Consol platform, agreed in a conversation with Izvestia. There is still a shortage of middles and seniors. The cost of finding and attracting an IT specialist with experience has become very high. Therefore, it is now more common not to look for a new employee, but to try to retain the old one.
- This is a different strategy in the employment market. Many companies, realizing that they can neither attract nor retain an experienced developer in the staff, cooperate with him or her on a project basis, as a freelancer. There are more and more such companies on our platform for cooperation with freelancers," he said.
In the IT segment, the labor market is turning from the "job seeker's market" to the "employer's market", Tatyana Khansuvarova, an expert of the corporate ratings group of ACRA, told Izvestia.
- The reasons are on the surface. In 2022 and 2023, Russian companies have thrown all their efforts into preserving IT competencies within the country, including counting on filling the niches that have been vacated and appeared due to changes in market conditions," the expert believes. - In 2024, the launched projects showed their first results and companies began to optimize them, which, together with inflationary pressure and high cost of borrowing, which hit the profitability of business, requires finding opportunities to save budgets and a more conservative approach to planning.
Despite the decline in the number of open-ended vacancies, the overall demand for IT specialists in Russia remains high. It has increased by 8% year-on-year in 2024, but the employment structure has changed, Igor Rastorguev, lead analyst at AMarkets, told Izvestia. Employers increasingly prefer temporary contracts, which allows them to adapt to market conditions and allocate resources more efficiently.
"Izvestia sent a request to the Labor Ministry, but no response had been received at the time of publication.
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