Олена Руденко
8/4/2024
As of early April, the number of online job vacancies on Djinni has reached nearly 7,600, marking the highest figure since July. Even in November, prior to the usual seasonal decline in December, there were fewer than 7,000 vacancies available.
Since the beginning of the year, the number of online candidates has hovered around 90K. Approximately 4,500 to 5,000 candidates are joining the search each week, with a similar number deactivating their profiles.
The percentage of new candidates among those activating profiles has decreased from 47% to 30% over the course of the year.
For instance, in March 2023, 10K new candidates entered the search, while 8K reactivated their profiles after discontinuing their search. In contrast, in March 2024, there were almost 10K reactivated profiles and only 7K new ones.
Reactivated after inactivity are candidates who disappeared from the search automatically when they did not respond to messages for a long time, and then returned.
Recruiters published 23.2 thousand vacancies in the first quarter of 2024, only 150 fewer than the previous quarter. However, this reflects a 35% decline compared to the first quarter of 2023. Although there are positive trends in the monthly publication of vacancies, they have not yet rebounded to the levels observed during the autumn period.
Jobs for candidates without experience show growth despite an overall decrease in the past year. However, their share is still very small, about 8.5%.
Nearly 45% of jobs published in the first quarter require 1 or 2 years of experience, while 25% are aimed at candidates with at least 3 years of experience. About 22% are designated for candidates with at least 5 years of experience. Notably, requirements for experience tend to be higher for developer vacancies, with 41% of such jobs requiring 5+ years of experience and less than 4% having no specific experience requirements.
Regarding job types, 11% of jobs involve office work, up from 8% a year ago. Conversely, there are fewer vacancies where candidates have a choice, comprising 31% compared to 39% previously.
The share of vacancies for developers decreased from 39% to almost 30% over the year. Conversely, the share of vacancies for non-technical specialists has significantly increased from 29% in the first quarter of 2023 to 35% now.
The Marketing category still leads in terms of the number of published jobs, with its share at almost 13.5%. However, the number of these vacancies has slightly decreased over the last quarter. In second place, with a significant gap, is the Sales category (5.5%). In third place is JavaScript (5.4%). Following closely behind in the top five are Project Manager (5.2%) and Fullstack (4.2%). Their numbers have noticeably increased in the last quarter. Additionally, this quarter saw an increase in vacancies for designers and data analysts.
In March, on average, a job received 21.2 applications, marking the lowest since June of the previous year. Interestingly, even in December, typically a period of lower activity, competition for each job was higher. Moreover, March saw candidates sending a record-low number of applications (excluding December), totaling almost 238K. This trend is partly attributed the new feature: recruiters now have the ability to customize from whom they wish to receive applications. Additionally, recruiters can implement control questions. Candidates have to answer those before sending their CV.
Both the number of candidates sending messages and the average number of responses they sent decreased, from 36,500 in January to 34,700 in March, and from almost 8 to 6.85, respectively. Vacancies without experience requirements continue to receive the highest number of responses per job. However, the average number of applications per such jobs has decreased over the year, from 42 in March of the previous year to 36 in March 2024. Meanwhile, for vacancies requiring 3+ years of experience, there were an average of 15 candidate responses last March 2023, compared to 20 responses last month.
Among categories, competition remains the highest in Manual QA, with vacancies in this category receiving an average of 86 applications each (down from 130 in January). Following closely behind is JavaScript, with 75 applications per job (down from 103). Design holds the third position, with vacancies in this category receiving an average of only 43 applications each (up from 40 in January. It is one of the few categories where the number of responses per vacancy has increased).
You can check the dynamics in your category here.
Salary range in jobs for senior developers decreased from $4,000-$5,500 in January to $3,000-$5,000 in March. These are the numbers of net monthly compensation.
Even in DevOps category, traditionally a high-paying one, the salary range for senior positions has decreased to $3,500-$5,500, despite holding steady at $4,000-$6,000 for the past six months.A few categories without the decline are Security, Product Manager, and Data Engineer.
You can click here to evaluate the situation in your cateogry.
In March, the salaries of experienced developers went back to what they were in the previous quarter. Candidates with 7 or more years of experience can expect around $5,000 net/month. Those with 5 to 6 years of experience usually get about $4,000. Develpers with 3 to 4 years of experience typically aim for around $2,500, but in February, it went up to $3,000. Similarly, those with 2 years of experience saw a rise to $1,800 in February, but it dropped back to $1,500 in March. If you're just starting out, you probably won't get $500. In February and March, salaries of developers without experience were between $400 and $450.
The decrease in salaries has not only affected developers. The median salaries of other technical candidates in the first quarter of 2024 are mostly lower than for the same period in 2023. And only in non-technical categories is there a +$500 for those with 7 or more years of experience. However, non-technical specialists are more often hired with less experience.
There are significantly less hires with a $7К salary. In Q1 2024, only 38 candidate were hired with this salary in profile. Last year, there were 84.
824 hire reports in March are the record number for 2024 so far. However, this is still 25% less than a year ago.
About 41% of the new hires are developers, 38% are in other tech roles, and nearly 21% are in non-technical specialist. That's pretty much the same as last time. But back in the first quarter of 2023, the share of developers was higher, around 44%, and the share of non-technical hires (like marketing specialists or HRs) was at 19%.
Candidates without experience make up roughly 12% of hires, while those with 7 or more years of experience make up about double that. The biggest bunch of hires experience-wise falls into the 1 to 2 years range. But on average, developers tend to be hired with more experience than others. Those with less than two years of experience make up 36% of developer hires, while it's more like 43-44% in other categories.
In non-technical fields, it's common to see more hires with less than a year of experience compared to technical roles.
In March, recruiters sent 61 proposals (these are messages when a recruiter writes first, asking a candidate to consider their vacancy). This number mirrors the figure from February but represents a 20% decline compared to March of the previous year. Concurrently, the number of candidates receiving such messages has held steady at 30-32 thousand per month, albeit with a decrease in the number of offers per candidate.
Out of 90 thousand candidates actively seeking positions, recruiters reached out to only a third. Notably, each of the 31.6 thousand candidates who received offers in March garnered fewer than two offers on average, marking a new record low.
Within the job categories, Marketing candidates received the highest number of job proposals since the year began, accounting for 12% of proposals in March. JavaScript surged to second place, capturing almost 7% of offers, while PHP slipped to third with 5.6%.
In March, the average Djinni index stood at 0.23, indicating that candidates received an average of 23 proposals from recruiters for every 100 applications. This figure reflects an increase from January's index of 0.19.
Typically, higher experience levels tend to correlate with higher indices, as candidates with more experience generally receive more attention from recruiters. However, in recent months, the index for candidates lacking experience has exceeded that of candidates with 1-2 years of experience.
In March, the index for candidates without experience was 0.21, while for those with 1-2 years of experience, it averaged at 0.16.
Among the category groups, the leaders were DevOps and security, with an index of 0.89 in March. Marketing and sales professionals ranked second, followed by data specialists, whose index notably increased in March.
In the first quarter, only four categories had an index of 1 or higher: Rust (1.24), Golang (1.11), SQL (1.06), and Security (1). Recruiters reached out to these candidates more frequently than the candidates applied themselves.
Traditionally, categories with the highest number of candidates tend to have the lowest indices. JavaScript stood at 0.07, while QA was at 0.06.
More details about the index can be found here. Recruiters read only 40% of responses, while candidates ignore 63% of offers.
Among the applications sent in March, recruiters read nearly 60%, but only responded to half of what they read. These proportions have remained relatively stable over the past few months, and the decrease in the number of responses has not yet affected them.
The response percent is influenced by the complexity of the job vacancy. If candidates responded to vacancies requiring 5+ years of experience, the response rate is 35%. Meanwhile, for vacancies with no experience requirements, responses were received only 25% of the time. Interestingly, the number of applications for both types of jobs is comparable (32 and 37 thousand, respectively).
On their part, candidates read 75% of the proposals they receive, but only open contacts for 37% of them (half of those they read). However, candidates actively searching for opportunities respond by opening contacts for almost half of the offers (44%). Passive job seekers, on the other hand, significantly lower the statistics, with a response rate of only 18%.
The current state of the IT job market this quarter shows improvement compared to the previous one, but most indicators still lag behind last year by 25-30%. Salaries across most categories have declined, both for new hires and in job listings. The median salary for entry-level developers has fallen below $500.
However, there's positive news: competition in job applications has eased slightly, and the number of available positions is on the rise. There's particularly high demand for marketers, sales professionals, and data scientists. If these trends persist, we may anticipate a steady increase in job openings, potentially surpassing 8000 vacancies by the second quarter.
