The increase in the number of IT vacancies in Russia may have a negative impact on startups in the country, said Dmitry Zakharov, CEO of the educational platform Moscow Digital School. He told Izvestia about this on January 26.
Earlier that day, Kommersant, citing data from recruiting agencies, reported that the demand for IT specialists in Russia had skyrocketed. So, according to the hh.ru platform, from March to October 2022, the average number of vacancies did not exceed 88 thousand, and in November it increased to 90 thousand, while 58.7 thousand job advertisements were published in incomplete January for IT professionals, which is 63% more than last year. Representatives of the service also expect further growth in January.
As Zakharov noted, first of all, such an increase in vacancies in IT and, as a result, increased competition for personnel can negatively affect startups.
“State-owned companies and major players can start raising salaries and offering additional benefits in an attempt to fill their vacancies with specialists with a sufficient level of competencies. But it will be difficult for small businesses, because they do not have such resources <...> Today, companies, in addition to the minimum options in the form of VHI (including life insurance against accidents when traveling abroad), offer: mobile communications and fitness at the expense of the company, the ability to choose equipment, monthly compensation for arranging a workplace outside the office, flexible hours, compensation for organizing participation in specialized events,” he emphasized.
Co-founder, CEO of XYZ School (part of Ultimate Education) Pavel Moseikin, in turn, added that the course taken in 2022 for import substitution and the creation of digital sovereignty is a very big task that requires a significant number of highly qualified personnel.
“In itself, the trend of growth in demand for IT specialists in Russia has been observed for more than a year. The data on the shortage of more than a million IT specialists, announced by the Ministry of Digital Development back in 2021, have all the prerequisites to adjust upward again after the departure of developers from the country and the departure of international companies from the market,” the specialist concluded.
On January 11, it became known that since December last year, the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation began holding meetings with representatives of associations and specialized companies on the issue of returning IT specialists to the country. As one of the measures, an increase in personal income tax from 13 to 30% for those IT specialists who work from abroad, even if they formally remain tax residents, is being discussed. The ministry is considering other measures, including a partial return flight back home and a draft reservation for programmers.
In December, Senator Andrei Klishas also took the initiative to impose a number of restrictions on citizens who have left the country. He suggested making their stay abroad “less comfortable”, but did not specify what measures he was talking about.
In the same month, Maksut Shadayev, head of the Ministry of Digital Development, reported that there were about 100,000 Russian IT specialists outside the country.
