Dejan Đokić, a member of the Board of Directors of ASEE Serbia, said that the recent layoffs in the domestic IT sector simultaneously imply the normalization of the growing trend of this industry, which in Serbia averages 9-11% per year.
“The increase in the number of people in the IT sector was extremely pronounced after the pandemic and we had a great employment peak both globally and here. Very quickly, another significant moment came, and that is the situation in Ukraine. Apart from the energy crisis, the financial situation and the challenges that the global market has been experiencing, there is also a problem with banks closing down, primarily in America, that can no longer finance the IT market. All of these led to a change in the investment priorities of large companies. In times like these, most often companies decide to implement only those projects that are most important, and leave less important ones for other, safer times”, said Đokić.
In the global market, this leads to a situation where the need for staff is not as strong as before
“The sudden jump in the number of employees and then the decrease in the number of people in the IT industry will actually lead to the normalization of the number of employees, that is, we are going back to the previous trend where the required number of IT staff will return to the expected number by the year-end. The global IT market is extremely strong and resistant to all current developments,” Đokić adds.
Regarding Serbia, Dejan Đokić says that the IT market is divided into two parts: companies that meet the needs of the growing domestic market and companies that are based in Serbia but work for the foreign market, i.e. they are outsourcing.
“Outsourcing companies often change personnel and have been struggling with challenges in the last few months. However, these are not as big challenges as it may be thought and presented. Of course, those people did lose their jobs and that is terrible, however, in the IT industry, where the entire global market is also a job market, IT staff that was laid off will find employment very easily, both in our country and the world. In the past, people working in outsourcing companies had between 10 to 15 job offers per month. They now have one to two offers and it is significantly more difficult than before, but this is still an extremely predictable market,” he adds.
Growth in the export of IT services this year as well
Đokić reminded that last year Serbia exported 2.7 billion euros worth of IT services.
“It is a truly exceptional result. The most deserving of this is the part of the industry that focuses on foreign projects. This year, in the first quarter, we also accomplished a great result – Serbia exported more than 760 million euros worth of IT services… At the end of this year, IT exports will probably amount to over 3 billion euros. We will have a slightly smaller growth than before, but considering the times we live in, that is also very significant and a great success,” Đokić points out.
(Biznis i Finansije, 07.07.2023)
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