Наталя ХандусенкоWork
3 August 2026, 11:55
2026-08-03
The number of technical specialists decreased by almost 2000: how the staff of the largest IT companies in Ukraine has changed in six months
The total number of specialists in the 50 largest IT companies in Ukraine has remained stable for a year and a half — at the level of 79,000 people with minimal fluctuations. In the first half of 2026, the total number of IT workers decreased by only 0.7%. Despite this general static, noticeable structural changes are taking place within the market: companies are hiring more actively, but the team of technical specialists continues to shrink.
The total number of specialists in the 50 largest IT companies in Ukraine has remained stable for a year and a half — at the level of 79,000 people with minimal fluctuations. In the first half of 2026, the total number of IT workers decreased by only 0.7%. Despite this general static, noticeable structural changes are taking place within the market: companies are hiring more actively, but the team of technical specialists continues to shrink.
The main trend in the first half of 2026 was the reduction of technical specialists, DOU reports . Over six months, their number in the top 50 decreased by 1,987 people (or 3%).
In addition, the market has lost its former "staticity":
18% of companies maintained stable staff numbers (for comparison, in winter there were 44%);
38% of companies showed growth. Product and hybrid companies grew;
42% of companies have reduced their teams in Ukraine.
The number of companies with significant staff reductions has also increased: if in the second half of 2025 only two companies from the rating lost more than 10% of employees, then in the first six months of 2026 there were already eight such companies.
Despite the general reduction in technical roles, the companies in the rating continue to actively attract new people - in half a year they hired almost 7,000 specialists.
As before, the main driver of hiring remains the food sector - food companies accounted for half of all new contracts. At the same time, outsourcing and outstaffing companies provided 38% of hires: despite the general trend towards reducing teams in this segment, recruiting in them does not stop.
Ajax Systems maintains its status as a leader in terms of growth rates. In the first half of 2026, the company expanded its staff by 977 specialists (225 of whom are technical specialists). This jump is due to the expansion of the product line, production scaling and automation. The company needs Embedded and Hardware engineers, Java developers, mechanical engineers and QA specialists the most.
The UPSTARS team has grown to 997 professionals, adding 199 new employees in half a year. Scaling is taking place through the development of existing products, launching new ones, and entering new markets. The company is actively hiring specialists in the areas of development, product design, QA, marketing, and management, focusing primarily on Middle+ and Senior level specialists.
The debutant of the rating - the company Boosta - increased its team by 152 specialists. The growth is due to the scaling of the existing business and investments in five new projects in the first half of the year. Currently, Boosta has more than 70 vacancies, and the greatest demand is for specialists in SEO, marketing, product direction, development and analytics.
EPAM: due to seasonality, project completion, and staff turnover, the team was reduced by 398 specialists, but the company plans to increase hiring in the second half of the year, focusing on Senior+ specialists (AI, Cloud, Data) and attracting graduates of its own training programs.
SoftServe: the staff has decreased by 220 specialists due to natural attrition and internal transformations, but the company maintains an average of 120 open vacancies, actively seeking experts in Robotics, R&D, Data Science, and Big Data.
GlobalLogic: the team has been reduced by 152 specialists due to changing market demands, while the company prioritizes the reallocation of projects for current employees, keeping over 120 open vacancies.
AUTODOC: the number of specialists has decreased by 217 people due to global restructuring and budget redirection to infrastructure, and hiring has been completely frozen until the end of 2026.
Ciklum: the reduction of the Ukrainian team by 165 specialists is due to the legalization of employees abroad, project dynamics, and reorganization of the bench, although the company continues to hire Cloud, DevOps, and AI/ML specialists.
King Group: the staff has decreased by 165 people due to the office format requirement and mobilization processes, but the company is preparing to expand teams for new projects.
Most companies will continue to actively hire in Ukraine. At the same time, some companies do not rule out layoffs in the next six months.
