Ukraine’s IT industry is considered to be one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing sectors, in particular, in Lviv. Over the past four years, Lviv IT Cluster and a sociological agency Fama have been trying to keep track of IT industry dynamics with an analytical study IT Research. The new IT Research 4.0 analyzed data from 2018 and 2019, determined the total number of IT companies and professionals working in tech, and measured the IT industry’s effect on the economy of Lviv.
The number of IT specialists has increased by 85% over the past 4 years
In 2019, the number of IT companies in Lviv increased by 45%. Last year the number of tech companies was 317 and currently amounts to 461. The growth dynamics between 2018 and 2019 is 1,5 times higher than between 2017-2018 (28%).
2 new companies joined the cohort of those with 1000+ employees: there are 5 of them in 2019. It should be noted that almost half of Lviv IT specialists work in large IT companies where the number of employees exceeds 251. In general, the number of IT specialists in Lviv increased by 85% from 2015 to 2019 and now amounts to 24-25 k. In contrast, in 2018, there were 20-21 k of employees working in tech.
Among all IT professionals, 80.4% are technical specialists and 19.6% are non-technical ones. The most common programming languages were JavaScript (71.0%), C ++ (47.8%), Java (47.5%), C # (44.7%), and Python (43.4%).
What does an employee of Lviv IT industry look like?
The median age of IT specialists in Lviv is 28 (among Junior specialists – 25, Middle – 26, and Senior – 30). Most IT professionals are men (66%), but the share of women in the IT industry is increasing: in 2019 there are 34% of women, whereas in 2015 the share equaled 23%, which is 11% less.
69.3% of those working in tech received a master’s degree. Among the 6 leading universities where IT specialists study are the following: Lviv Polytechnic National University (41.1%), Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (27.1%), Ukrainian Academy of Printing (4.2%), Ternopil Ivan Puluj National Technical University (1.5%), Ukrainian National Forestry University (1.2%), and Ukrainian Catholic University (1.2%).
The average salary of an IT specialist in Lviv as of 2019 totals $ 1,866. An average IT specialist in Lviv can purchase 848 Big Mac burgers on their monthly income. 8 out of 10 IT professionals are satisfied with their pay level.
On average, IT specialists from Lviv travel three times per year: 78% of trips within the territory of Ukraine, 89% ‒ abroad. The most popular holiday destinations in Ukraine were the Carpathians, Bukovel, Kyiv, Odesa, and Transcarpathia; and foreign countries ‒ Poland, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Turkey.
Over the past year, 1 out of 3 IT specialists travelled for business within the territory of Ukraine or abroad. 55.7% reportedly had business trips within Ukraine, whereas 83.2% went abroad. Senior-level executives were observed to travel on business most often, with an average of 6 business trips per year.
76.6% of IT professionals in Lviv have hobbies, while 63.0% lead an active lifestyle.
IT industry employees in Lviv are socially active and responsible: 1 out of 2 IT specialists donates to charity, 1 out of 7 is a member of a public organization or association, sports club, arts organization, trade union, party, or political entity. Moreover, 64.6% of those working in tech take care of the environment, sorting the trash.
Economic Effect of Lviv IT Industry Exceeds $ 1 billion
The total economic effect of the IT industry in Lviv in 2018 amounted to $ 1,051 billion, out of which the direct economic effect totaled $ 639 million, indirect (the effect of IT on related industries) $ 411 million. Direct economic effect growth dynamics from 2016 onwards equals 37%, indirect ‒ 43%.
IT industry share in GRP of Lviv in 2018 amounted to 20%. The tech industry’s turnover ranged between $ 658 million and $ 718 million. The total number of jobs created by IT industry in Lviv equals 70.7-71.1 k. Accordingly, the number of direct jobs in IT was 24-25 k, whereas indirect ones (in other related sectors) ‒ 46 k. Overall, one IT specialist creates 3 jobs in Lviv.
“The fourth year in a row, we’ve been trying to keep abreast of the growth and changes in our city’s IT industry. It is very important for us to understand the progress, the changes dynamics, and know detailed figures. In comparison with the first survey in 2015, currently, we can observe a significant growth in the last year alone. 150 new IT companies appeared in Lviv, existing companies have grown in number: at 3 of them, the number of employees has passed over 1000+. In total, the number of employees in the tech industry in Lviv increased by almost 4k, and economic effect of the industry that reached nearly 1 billion last year, has reportedly exceeded the previous year’s indicators. The statistics are overwhelmingly striking, as for me“, comments Stepan Veselovskyi, CEO, Lviv IT Cluster.
You can download IT Research 4.0 here.
About IT Research 4.0.
In the course of the study, which includes a sociological and economic component, employees of the Lviv IT industry and top-level executives were interviewed, and desk research on the number of companies in Lviv was conducted.
Statistics:
- 820 IT specialists working in Lviv interviewed
- 461 companies analyzed