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Наталя ХандусенкоHot News
17 August 2026, 15:24
2026-08-17
IT is losing ground among sole proprietors: the most popular direction — "Computer Programming" — went into the red for the first time
In the second quarter of 2026, Ukrainian small businesses demonstrated record growth rates: the number of new sole proprietorships increased by 22% compared to the beginning of the year, while the number of closures, on the contrary, decreased. According to the analytical team of YC.Market, this figure of registrations became the highest among the second quarters in the last five years. However, IT stands in sharp contrast to the overall positive balance in the country.
In the second quarter of 2026, Ukrainian small businesses demonstrated record growth rates: the number of new sole proprietorships increased by 22% compared to the beginning of the year, while the number of closures, on the contrary, decreased. According to the analytical team of YC.Market, this figure of registrations became the highest among the second quarters in the last five years. However, IT stands in sharp contrast to the overall positive balance in the country.
General dynamics
As reported to dev.ua by the YC.Market analytical team, in the first half of 2026, the business activity of individual entrepreneurs turned positive: 140,300 new entrepreneurs were registered against 100,100 closed ones (net growth was +40,200. This is significantly better than the same period in 2025, when there were more closures than openings (balance -15,600), but the indicator still did not reach the level of 2024 (+58,300).
Regional leaders
Kyiv: leader in both openings (9,500) and closures (6,200).
Dnipropetrovsk region ranks second in both indicators (7,600 registrations and 4,700 closures; balance +2,900).
Third positions: Odessa region closes the top three in terms of the number of new individual entrepreneurs, and Kharkiv region - in terms of the number of terminations of activity.
Gender distribution
Women accounted for the lion's share of the increase in entrepreneurs — 78% of the total net increase (+32,000 female FOPs vs. +8,100 male FOPs). The share of women among new FOPs has increased significantly since 2022 (from 43.3% to over 56% in 2023) and has remained stable at around 60% throughout 2024–2026.
The IT sector is losing ground
The Ukrainian IT industry is showing a decline amid overall business growth in the country. In Q2, the number of new IT sole proprietorships decreased by 8.7% (to 8,800), while closures increased by 6.5%. As a result, the sector's overall growth more than halved — from +2,100 to +800.
The most popular direction — "Computer Programming" (VED 62.01) — went into the red for the first time.
During the quarter: 506 more sole proprietorships closed than opened (4,500 closures versus 4,000 registrations).
For the first half of the year: the total loss amounted to 267 individual entrepreneurs.
The overall growth of the entire IT sector (+790 sole proprietors in the second quarter) was sustained only thanks to other related areas.
The programming shortage reflects changes in the market: the demand for standard developers is falling, and competition between them is increasing. Instead, the focus and vacancies are shifting towards specialized engineering areas: DefTech, Hardware, Embedded, Data, and Artificial Intelligence.
Професії у геймдеві. Хто такий левел-дизайнер і як ним стати?
Ми продовжуємо нашу рубрику, присвячену професіям у геймдеві. Тема нового матеріалу в ній — левел-дизайн. Його вважають підвидом геймдизайну, але все-таки практично кожна студія хоче окрему людину на позицію левел-дизайнера. Адже у цій спеціальності вистачає своїх нюансів та особливостей.
Розібратися з ними всіма нам допоміг досвідчений левел-дизайнер зі студії Fractured Byte Дмитро Нестеренко. Також він веде свій блог Game Designer Notes про геймдизайн в цілому, в якому розбирає багато цікавих нюансів розробки ігор.
