IT Research Resilience is a research project of the Lviv IT Cluster, which was transformed from the IT Research Ukraine project announced at the beginning of 2022. Due to the full-scale russian offensive, the research was adapted to new realities.
For the first time, the Lviv IT Cluster investigated the socio-demographic profile and number of IT specialists, employee and office relocation, changes in the structure of companies, and migration attitudes of IT professionals in seven regions of western Ukraine. In addition, the project contains data on the increase in local consumption due to relocations in the regions and the forecast of the development of the IT industry after the victory of Ukraine. More than 5,000 respondents were surveyed in the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, Ternopil, Volyn, Chernivtsi and Zakarpattia regions. Data collection and analysis within the sociological part of the IT Research Resilience project was provided by the Fama Research Agency on request from the Lviv IT Cluster.
The project was implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the USAID Program “Competitive Economy of Ukraine”, supporting small and midsize businesses and startups, and the Western NIS Enterprise Fund, which supports initiatives to promote reforms in Ukraine and transformative projects.
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of IT Research Resilience is to comprehensively investigate the changes occurring in the tech industry of the western region of Ukraine after the beginning of the full-scale invasion, to analyze the events and the transformation of the IT industry after the victory of Ukraine.
RESULTS (selection):
- As of the end of 2021, there were about 285,000 IT professionals in Ukraine, with the main tech hubs being located in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Odesa
- The full-scale war forced between 50,000 and 57,000 IT professionals to relocate abroad as of May-June
- About 7,000 IT professionals joined the ranks of the Armed Forces or Territorial Defense
- Currently (July 2022), the approximate number of IT specialists in Ukraine reaches 228,000 people
- MIGRATION ATTITUDES:
- 57% of respondents want to live in Ukraine
- Experienced employees who have a partner or family member are more likely to move abroad. The most common factors that provoke migration are the loss of housing or work.
- During the survey, three prospective scenarios of the development of events in Ukraine were modelled. IT specialists were invited to imagine themselves in each of them a year from now. In the case of the implementation of the positive scenario, which presupposes European integration and liberalization of the economy, 78% of the respondents will remain in Ukraine, and 12%, i.e. approximately 27,000 people, will try to move abroad.
- BUSINESS ACTIVITY RESUMPTION:
- 85% of surveyed companies said that as of May, they managed to completely or almost completely resume business activity to pre-February 24 levels.
- 63% of companies noted a positive financial result
- 13% – an increase in income in the range of 25-50%