About 90% of developers on the market are focused on outsourcing. The domestic market can be estimated at roughly 10%, says Viktor Valieiev, Executive Director of the IT Ukraine Association. Overall, approximately 50–65 thousand Ukrainians are employed in software development.
Clients of outsourcing companies continue to pay in dollars, so profits grow as the exchange rate rises. The domestic market has no such advantage: inflation reduces profits, while costs, for example for office maintenance, keep rising. The domestic IT market continues to shrink. According to Valieiev, due to the country's economic problems it fell by approximately 45–50% in 2014. "So far I see no prospects for the domestic market to recover in 2015, and the authorities are not stimulating the industry's development and are even proposing to increase the tax burden," he says.
On the other hand, the development of the outsourcing business is slowing. This year, the growth rate of software development services exports from Ukraine fell to 5%, compared with 20–25% in previous years, and some companies have closed altogether. Some clients have moved their orders from Ukraine to other countries. Demand for IT staff is declining both in companies focused on the domestic market and in outsourcing companies. At the same time, the latter still lack qualified personnel.