Almost 35% of Russian IT specialists have experienced a decrease in income

Almost 35% of Russian IT specialists have experienced a decrease in income. Among other problems, employees note a decrease in the possibility of remote work and the impact of Western sanctions. Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Digital Development, earnings of IT companies themselves in the Russian Federation are growing by 20%. The “negative perception of income” by employees, experts believe, is mainly due to rising inflation and the dollar exchange rate. The situation may also be a consequence of the increasing share of “young specialists” in the market, whose salary expectations do not coincide with what companies are ready to offer them.

Kommersant got acquainted with the results of a survey conducted by the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC) among IT specialists in September-October. The study involved 2.5–3 thousand people. The respondents were workers from a wide range of specialties, in particular “testers, designers and representatives of other digital professions,” said Maria Saykina, chief analyst of RAEC.

It follows from the survey that, compared with the results of the previous study conducted in January-February, the proportion of workers facing a decrease in income has increased. In the fall, this problem was identified as a key one by 34.9% of respondents, while at the beginning of the year there were 25.6%. At the same time, the number of layoffs in the market decreased: in the winter, 4.4% reported layoffs, and in the fall – 3.2% of respondents.

Among other problems, the surveyed experts cite the impossibility of remote work – 14.3% (9% at the beginning of the year), as well as a lack of competencies (that is, the lack of additional training to work with new projects) – 23.8% (13.3% at the beginning of the year). beginning of the year). A third of employees feel the direct impact of Western sanctions and technological restrictions, but 27% do not observe this.

Although IT specialists talk about a drop in their income, the Ministry of Digital Development notes a serious increase in the income of large and medium-sized IT companies – by almost 20%, to 1.7 trillion rubles, in January-September.

According to Ms. Saykina, the “feeling of declining income” may be associated with an increase in the market share of young professionals, since “employees with insufficient experience are offered lower salaries.”

Meanwhile, the Internet Initiatives Development Fund calls the decline in employee incomes quite real, noting that “for a number of start-up companies, the drop in salaries reaches 77.3% year on year.”

The rise in the exchange rate of the euro and dollar contributed to the feeling of a decrease in income, adds Maria Saykina: “Employees themselves often estimate their earnings in foreign currency.” In January-October, the dollar exchange rate increased from 69.5 to 93.2 rubles. (90.1 rubles on December 13), euro exchange rate – from 75.7 to 98.6 rubles. (97.05 rubles on December 13). High inflation aggravates the situation, Ms. Saikina clarifies. As of October, annual inflation, according to Rosstat, accelerated to 6.69% (analysts expected 6.7%) from 6.00% at the end of September. From December 5 to December 11, inflation slowed to 7.47% from 7.52% a week earlier.

Income could also be affected by a decrease in remote work opportunities, believes Aigun Kurbanova, president of the Association of Career Consultants: there are much fewer such offers, competition is arising for them, and salaries are being reduced. Also, more candidates have appeared on the market who have only recently received a specialty, and offers from employers do not coincide with their salary expectations, she confirms. Employers have to “choose from those who remain on the market,” but they are not always offered high salaries, the expert clarifies.

Meanwhile, analysts’ data indicate an increase in salaries in Russian IT. Thus, according to the recruiting service hh.ru, in October the median offered salary in the industry was 63.4 thousand rubles, since the beginning of the year it has increased by 9.46%. According to SberIndex estimates, the median salary in the country as a whole in the summer of 2023 was 52.27 thousand rubles, the same figure for IT was 68.1 thousand rubles. Habr Career generally gives a radically different assessment: the median salary in IT for the first half of the year is at 165 thousand rubles, but they also note an increase of 10%.

The highest salaries for IT specialists are at the level of 300–400 thousand rubles, hh.ru clarifies, they are offered by structures involved in software development, system integrators, as well as search engines, payment systems and social networks. They account for 80% of IT vacancies with salaries starting from 400 thousand rubles.

The Ministry of Digital Development told Kommersant that companies and IT specialists did not contact them with questions about salary levels, but they doubt the seriousness of the problem: “Taken together, government support measures (tax breaks, direct measures of financial support, etc.) make it possible to reduce administrative and fiscal burden on the IT business and create favorable conditions for employee income growth.”

Tatiana Isakova, Alexey Zhabin