Globally and in the SEE region, the tech industry is currently navigating turbulent waters marked by a notable decline in IT job listings. This shift, influenced by the trio of post-COVID dynamics, global events, and socioeconomic factors, has prompted a reevaluation of employment trends and market resilience. 

While the IT industry’s allure lies in its exceptional benefits, remote work options, flexibility, and innovation-driven culture, regional online IT job platform Joberty has also taken another step when it comes to securing work positions for candidates across the region.

At the beginning of the year, the platform introduced Jobster, which is basically a shift towards the non-IT industries in Serbia. They will also target and look to impact sectors such as finance, marketing, and healthcare.

Is this a pivotal shift or a mere blip on the radar of the ever-evolving IT job market in SEE? In this interview, we highlight Joberty’s observations and predictions, in an attempt to understand the forces shaping the future of IT employment in the SEE region and beyond.

What’s behind the idea for Jobster and what are the geographical markers that you would be covering?

Joberty: The IT industry has always been a leader when it comes to benefits, remote work, flexibility, and similar. It holds the highest salaries and sets the bar for everyone else. And most importantly, it drives innovation and moves our humanity forward. The fact is that not everyone has the privilege of working for a tech company.

Joberty has changed the way we choose a company and candidates. Therefore, we felt the need and responsibility to improve work transparency in other industries as well. Through Jobster, we get the opportunity to influence finance, marketing, healthcare, and many others.

For the start we will cover the Serbian market, but we have great ambitions.

We’ve noticed a decline in IT job listings over the past year – in your opinion, what are the factors contributing to this trend?

During the COVID-19 period, there was an expansion in the IT industry as a result of the digitalization of various sectors. At that time, companies were comfortable having surplus developers on the bench to be ready for new projects at any moment.

In the post-COVID period, the need for certain digital products decreased (or returned to previous levels). Additionally, due to global events such as wars, and other socioeconomic factors, many projects were disrupted, directly impacting cost optimization efforts and demand for software developers.

Joberty is present globally, but still focused on the SEE region – are there specific sectors or roles within IT that have seen a more significant drop rise in job listings?

Information from our platform indicates a significant increase in demand for DevOps engineers in the latest snapshot, by companies who play a crucial role in creating fast, reliable, and secure software delivery. Additionally, under the influence of artificial intelligence development, the demand for Data Science roles continues. We also noticed higher demand for Embedded and Python engineers.

On the other hand, from the candidate’s perspective, for seniors, we can confirm a balance in supply and demand, with the highest number of applications received for DevOps job postings, while for juniors, the most popular ads are those seeking Java developers.

Are there particular areas or countries that seem to be more resilient to this trend?

As far as we observe, the IT crisis is prevalent everywhere, but the point at which it began differs. For now, it seems that Romania is least affected, but it’s also the biggest market within South East Europe.

What are your predictions for the future of the IT job market in the SEE region?

The consequences of the crisis are still being felt. In some companies, layoffs are still happening, while others have frozen new hiring processes or significantly reduced the need for them. It seems that the crisis has led to many processes being optimized and made more efficient (which consequently requires fewer resources, including employees), but it definitely hasn’t stopped the revenue growth generated by IT.

For now, it seems that companies will start the year more carefully, but that doesn’t mean that market recovery won’t begin.

What we notice is that the demand for senior programmers remains constant, while the biggest difference is seen in the demand for juniors, which is lower than in previous years.

Do you foresee a potential rebound or further challenge in the coming period?

Year by year, digitization reaches new levels, and this trend is accompanied by a growing demand for experts who enable it all.

We witness the development of artificial intelligence and the fact that more and more jobs once performed by humans are being replaced by automation, software, and robotics. Thus, the most sought-after professionals are those who can create such systems and manage them to improve business operations.

In addition to artificial intelligence, which visibly captured public attention last year and is believed to change the course of work in many spheres, there are announcements of further digitization across all sectors, from healthcare to agriculture.

Another area receiving special emphasis is cybersecurity, as one of the fields in which IT professionals will have abundant job opportunities. With an increasing number of cyberattacks and their potential impact, maintaining the security of data for large companies will be a priority. A closely related field is data science and IT, as such, covers various sectors and industries involving the collection and analysis of large amounts of data.

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