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 partners of the project are the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the USAID program “Competitive Economy of Ukraine” and the Western NIS Enterprise Fund.

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.

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 shook the tech industry as much as any other sphere. According to IT Research Resilience, as of May-June, between 50,000 and 57,000 IT professionals relocated abroad. About 7,000 IT professionals joined the ranks of the Armed Forces or Territorial Defense. Today, the approximate number of IT specialists in Ukraine reaches 228,000 people. The study also analyzed the types of compensation given by companies to mobilized employees.

According to IT Research Resilience, the median salary of an IT specialist in Ukraine after February 24 is $2,360. The average age of an IT specialist is 31 years. 71% of the industry are men and 29% are women

According to the IT Research Resilience, 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, we modeled three prospective scenarios of the development of events in Ukraine and invited IT specialists 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.

According to IT Research Resilience, 85% of surveyed companies said that as of May, they managed to completely or almost completely resume business activity to pre-February 24 levels. 65% of companies noted a positive financial result, and 13% – an increase in income in the range of 25-50%.

IT Research Resilience investigates 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.