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Elimination of tax breaks in IT sector, speeding up crisis already felt on labour market (analysis)
The elimination of tax breaks in the IT sector is speeding up a crisis already felt on the labour market, and competition between candidates will increase even more, according to an analysis by an online recruitment platform in Romania, told Agerpres.
"The year 2023 was a difficult one for the IT sector, both globally and especially in Romania. On the one hand, significant layoffs in the first part of the year left many candidates looking for jobs in a market with increasingly high demands, and on the other hand, the taxation of incomes above 10,000 lei gross, a measure that is expected to be implemented this autumn, puts pressure on recruitment and may lead employers to turn to younger candidates, who fall within the non-taxable salary limit," the analysis shows.
The number of IT jobs available on the bestjobs recruitment platform remained at the same level as in January, while the number of applications registered by candidates last month is 15% higher than at the beginning of the year.
In IT, there are still specialisations for which finding suitable candidates remains a problem. These are usually those related to new or developing technologies, such as automation, Artificial Intelligence or cyber security, for which salary offers are well above the market average.
At the other end of the spectrum, efforts by large IT companies to adjust the number of employees recruited during the pandemic to the current workload has resulted in massive layoffs in the sector, which began at the end of 2022 and are still echoing in the labour market. Many candidates are still available after long periods of search and, in the context of the elimination of tax breaks, will have to reduce their financial expectations considerably.
"After many years in which the IT sector has faced a great shortage of specialists, despite high salary offers, this year a shift in the balance of power between employers and candidates is emerging, with the advantage going to employers. However, some specialisations are doing better than others, but at the recruitment level, there is a growing tension, as some candidates are finding it difficult to find a suitable job quickly," says bestjobs Marketing Manager Ana Visian.
Bestjobs is one of the leading online recruitment platforms in Romania. At any given time, there are over 35,000 jobs and 4.6 million professionals connected to the job market on the platform.
