The IT industry in Serbia faced difficulties this year, mostly caused by the global impact on the IT market. The global situation, which could be characterized as a crisis, led to a decline in the number of job advertisements in the domestic IT sector in the first nine months. However, the last quarter of 2023 shows better signs, indicating an expected halt in the decline of job advertisements in the industry.
Experts say that the biggest problems were faced by Serbian companies that do not offer their products but are service-oriented for foreign markets, and they recorded a decline in the number of employees. However, these were not necessarily IT professionals but also staff employed in public relations and human resources. As for the types of jobs, software engineers remain the most sought after and highest-paid.
What is most important, according to NIN’s interlocutors, is that better conditions are expected next year, both globally and domestically. The Serbian market expects progress in salaries, the number of employees, and increased investments.
According to Marko Vučetić, a public relations associate at the HelloWorld.rs website, there was a decline in the number of job advertisements in 2023. On their platform, a 52% decline was observed from January to September compared to the previous year.
“What is a fact is that the global situation has influenced our market, and there was more caution regarding employment. There is also a decline in the number of job advertisements for remote work. On the other hand, the demand for juniors has increased from nine to 15%, so they were quite well sought after in a challenging year,” said Marko Vučetić to NIN.
He mentioned that there was a decline for mediors, from 68 to 63% of the total number sought, while seniors remained relatively constant – the demand for them was the same as the previous year, with 22% of ads targeting them.
