Competition for Entry-Level Positions in Ukrainian IT Nearly Doubles

Competition for IT jobs among specialists with minimal experience has intensified in Ukraine. In September 2026, one entry-level vacancy received an average of 47 responses compared to 26 in January. Meanwhile, the number of available job offers is shrinking.

This is according to a study by the DOU platform, published on October 19 based on statistics of vacancies and responses on jobs.dou.ua.

In September, employers posted 613 vacancies for specialists with less than one year of experience. Of these, 188 offers were available to candidates with no work experience at all.

For comparison, in January companies offered 883 such vacancies. Thus, over nine months their number decreased by about 31%. Overall, the DOU IT market also shows a decline: from almost 8 thousand vacancies per month at the beginning of the year to 6.3 thousand in September.

The most opportunities for beginners remain in marketing, user support, software testing (QA), HR, and working with hardware.

However, developers without significant experience find it harder to get a job. In the third quarter, DOU published only 28 vacancies for beginners in Embedded, 25 in Front-end, and 20 in Python.

The highest competition among newcomers is observed in the areas of Node.js, Front-end, and AI/ML. At the same time, significantly fewer applicants are attracted to Hardware vacancies — on average 5.5 responses, Technical Writer — 9, Finance — 10, and Embedded — 14.

A separate direction remains the defense technology sector (DefTech). In September, the platform had 123 vacancies for beginners in this sector, or about 20% of all offers for candidates with up to one year of experience.

Competition in DefTech has also increased, but remains lower than the IT market average: from 9 responses per vacancy in January to 14 in September. In September, the most offers for newcomers were in the Hardware direction — 29 vacancies.

DOU estimates that defense companies are increasingly focusing on finding experienced specialists. Despite this, the sector remains one of the directions where employers continue to open positions for candidates with minimal experience.

The above figures refer to vacancies and responses on the DOU platform and do not cover all job offers in the Ukrainian IT market.

Based on materials from: DOU