VP Team, Clust, and Happy Monday published a joint study of the IT labor market. dev.ua collected seven insights that change the modern logic of hiring and retaining people.
VP Team, Clust, and Happy Monday published a joint study of the IT labor market. dev.ua collected seven insights that change the modern logic of hiring and retaining people.
If in 2024 the stack was the third reason for changing jobs for developers (43%), then in 2025 it fell to sixth place — only 28%. On the other hand, career growth shot from fourth to second place (46%). The financial offer, as before, remains the main one.
Conclusion for those who hire: a job description with an emphasis on React/Go/Kotlin is less effective than a specific story about the career trajectory — what will be the scope, where can you grow, what is the responsibility. The stack is already a basic condition, not a differentiator.
The happiness score of tech specialists fell from 7.5 to 6.8 over the year. In non-tech — from 6.9 to 6.4. The happiest in the market are AI Engineers and Solution Architects. The least satisfied are Sales and Project Managers.
The practical consequence: people who seemed «settled» in 2024 are now much more open to offers. The threshold for quitting a job has dropped. For companies, this is both an opportunity for outreach and a risk of losing their own.
The gap between current and desired salaries for non-tech juniors has reached critical levels: in marketing — about 50%, in sales — 45%, in mid-level designers — 40%. This is the highest risk of counteroffer and churn among all categories.
For those opening such roles: the budget should be approved before the start of hiring, not after the first offer.
The main reason 56% of tech professionals consider changing jobs isn’t salary. It’s a bad manager and a toxic culture. A competitive offer gets someone on board, but it won’t keep them if management is weak.
The strongest signal a company can send to the market is not «we pay well,» but «we trust people and move fast.»
Only 18% of tech leads currently work in product companies — but 41% want to. The gap is even wider among Delivery Managers: 38% are in product now, 71% want to. This means that a product company can lure someone from outsourcing even without a significantly higher salary — simply by saying «we are the product» before they announce the number.
70% of backend developers want full remote. 92% of CFOs are hybrid. Ops Manager, Delivery Manager, Project Manager are mostly hybrid. BA and BizDev are remote.
The only policy for the entire company is to lose candidates silently. The format of the job should correspond to the role, not corporate fashion.
63% of tech specialists receive only a base salary — no bonuses or equity. At the same time, most competitors do not offer equity either. Adding even a small equity component — options, ESOP, profit share — already sets a company apart from the market.
In non-tech, it’s the opposite: a bonus for results is the norm for Sales, Marketing, and HR. An offer without a bonus part is read as a signal that the company does not reward results.
The research was conducted by VP Team, Clust, and Happy Monday based on a survey of candidates in 2025.
