Statistical Analysis of the IT Market in Ukraine

Abstract

The article analyzes the development of the information technology industry in Ukraine for the last few years. The purposes of the study were to identify and uncover problems with statistical monitoring of Ukrainian IT industry, analyze present challenges of the information technology industry development, and find ways to improve statistical studies of the industry on the state level.  The current state of the information technology industry in Ukraine and the main directions of the industry expansion (software development outsourcing, development of packaged software) were evaluated and compared to the ones of the European countries. Through a combination of researches and surveys conducted by the Ukrainian developer’s society (DOU), qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the IT industry development performance and labor market were analyzed: major education providers, the structure of job titles and positions, as well as principal locations, age-grading, gender and wage structure of workers. Conclusions from the analysis allow suggesting that the official state statistics service research areas provide a limited outlook on the information technology industry statistics due to being hindered by institutional constraints. Among the major constraints for the growth of the information technology industry in Ukraine, the following four are recognized: the lack of predictable and sustainable taxation, slow reforms process in the education system, an inappropriate level of intellectual property rights protection and insufficient development of state information technology infrastructure. While the impact of the Ukrainian information technology sector on the economic development is evident and the industry shows strong growth among the various segments of the Ukrainian economy, there is no sufficient essential economic information collected, analyzed, and disseminated due to a number of problems related to statistical monitoring, which in turn requires an appropriate statistical basis and assessment methodology for further evaluation of the industry development.