In the Ukrainian IT sector, finding a job has become more difficult - research

In the Ukrainian IT market in the fall of 2026, competition for jobs sharply intensified. In September, an average of over 38 applications per vacancy on jobs.dou.ua was one of the highest figures in recent years.

This is evidenced by the quarterly labor market analysis of DOU. At the same time, the number of vacancies began to decline: in September, companies published 6,340 positions compared to almost 8,000 at the March peak.

Overall, in the third quarter, there were about 19.8 thousand vacancies on jobs.dou.ua - about 6% less than in the second quarter. Meanwhile, the number of active candidates who responded to job offers increased from about 22,000 in June to 27,000 in September.

The most noticeable reduction in demand was in marketing. Over the quarter, the number of such vacancies decreased from 2,214 to 1,863, or by 16%. Despite the drop, marketing remains the largest category in terms of number of job offers.

Hiring also significantly decreased in design, front-end, HR, support, and project management. The number of front-end vacancies fell by 31% over the quarter - from 458 to 318, and for Node.js developers - by 22%, to 375.

Some mobile and software specializations dropped even more sharply: vacancies for Ruby developers decreased by 58%, iOS/macOS - by 49%, React Native - by 33%, Android - by 23%.

At the same time, demand grew in a number of areas. The number of vacancies in the Legal category increased by 29%, Security - by 23%, Hardware - by 6%, and Architect - almost by half. Among developer specializations, high demand remains for Python, Embedded, and Node.js.

The most acute competition was in front-end: in September, on average there were about 275 applications per vacancy. For Node.js, the figure was about 185, for QA - 113, PHP and React Native - about 110.

Competition also intensified for non-technical and managerial positions. On average, there were about 70 applications per Project Manager vacancy, in Design - 63, HR - 44, Product Manager - 42. In the DevOps and AI/ML segments, the figure was about 38 and 34 applications respectively.

On the other hand, the situation remains much more favorable for candidates in Hardware, Embedded, and Security. In September, DOU recorded 274 Hardware vacancies with an average of 3.5 applications per position, in Embedded - about 6 applications, in Security - 8.

The defense sector remains a separate driver of the market. In September, the number of DefTech vacancies reached a record 1,395. They received about 12.7 thousand applications, or an average of nine per position.

Employer activity is also increasingly shifting towards defense companies and units of the Defense Forces. The three most active employers by number of vacancies in the third quarter were associated with the defense sector, while among classic IT companies, the most positions were posted by SKELAR, Boosta, and Ciklum.

Thus, the IT labor market in Ukraine is entering a phase where the total number of vacancies is decreasing faster than the number of candidates. At the same time, the situation is very uneven: in mass specializations, competition is sharply increasing, while in Hardware, Embedded, Security, and DefTech, employers are still actively looking for specialists.