The sector of information and communication technologies in our country has been growing the fastest in recent years, but also the most deficient. Demand for IT professionals is growing – in just 12 months it has grown by more than 30 percent. The war in Ukraine has further increased the space for both employment and profit. In six months, according to the announcements of experts, the arrival of an increasing number of IT experts in Serbia will give the first results. Instead of the planned 120,000, the number of IT specialists in Serbia will be 160,000 by the end of 2025.
The collapse of the Ukrainian sector of Information and Communication Technologies has disrupted the labor market, as well as the business of many European companies. While Ukrainian experts are moving all over Europe, Russians are moving to our country due to blockades and closures of foreign companies.
“Like other American companies, ‘Luxsoft’ has left the Russian market. Our situation is specific because we had a large number of employees in Russia in Russian terms. We are talking about 4,000 employees who worked on the Russian market, some stay there, regroup. are in some local Russian IT companies, and two thousand will be mostly relocated to Serbia “, says Mihajlo Poštić, director of the company” Luksoft Srbija “.
The lack of staff will be compensated by domestic experts. That company alone has 400 new jobs.
“Labor price jump inevitable”
Marko Vučetić, PR of the Helloworld portal , points out that a jump in the price of labor is inevitable.
“Ukraine is a strong IT labor market and has as many as 290,000 IT experts, but what we have to mention is Russia. What the market is already showing is that we have more and more Russian citizens, especially IT people who work from here,” Vucetic emphasizes.
Everyone saw the arrival of computer scientists as a positive trend. In addition to new experiences and knowledge, even faster development of the ICT sector in our country is expected.
“People from the Russian Federation who want to work with domestic companies, these are very interesting expertise that we do not have. for example, domestic companies did not work “, says Jelena Jovanović from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
In the first two months of this year, the export of services in the ICT sector in Serbia amounted to 347 million euros, which is 42 percent more than in the first two months of the previous year.
It is necessary to keep experts in the country
Exports from the ICT sector are expected to exceed 2.5 billion euros this year, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said at the signing of the contract with the Oracle Corporation.
“The total number of employees in this sector has exceeded 90,000 people. In the last two years alone, it has increased by some 25 percent. That means that every sixth job was in the IT sector,” Brnabić said.
The education system can also significantly contribute to filling vacancies and strengthening staff.
The director of “Luksoft Srbija” believes that the education system should colloquially expel as many young talents as possible.
“The enrollment of students who deal with computers at the ETF should be increased, and what we are currently talking about and where we will most likely start further talks with state institutions, and that is to recognize a professional doctorate,” Jelena Jovanovic points out.
The predictions of the leaders of companies from the IT sector are that in the next year, 50 experts a month will surely come to Serbia from Russia in order to meet the minimum needs.
It is necessary to improve the exchange of knowledge and experiences, keep experts in the country, enable residence and business as in home countries, in order to continue to expand, develop and position the ICT sector as a leader in this part of Europe, RTS writes.
