Largest Russian IT Companies Reduce Job Vacancies By 15-18% In 2024

Posted by By Dan Taylor 2 Min Read

The number of IT job vacancies in Russia dropped by 5% in 2024 compared to 2023, according to data from Habr.Career. Among the three largest Russian IT companies—Lanit, MTS, and VimpelCom (Beeline brand)—vacancies declined by 15-18%. The reduction primarily affected developer roles.

At the same time, demand for specialists in artificial intelligence (AI) rose by 43%. This trend highlights the growing focus on AI technologies despite the overall decrease in hiring.

Mixed Trends Across Industries

While major IT firms reduced their hiring, IT vacancies in non-IT sectors grew by 12% in 2024. Data from HeadHunter and SuperJob revealed that government organizations were the biggest contributors to this increase, with 45% more IT job postings over the year.

However, the transport and logistics sector saw a 9% drop in IT vacancies compared to 2023.

Economic Factors Driving Changes

Experts point to economic challenges as a key reason for reduced hiring in large IT companies. Independent telecom analyst Alexey Slukin explained that companies are avoiding heavy investments in projects without quick payback potential.

VimpelCom, which focuses on AI and automation, reported that optimizing processes has reduced the need for some roles. Despite fewer vacancies, the company claims its workforce remains steady at over 26,000 employees.

MTS also confirmed fewer job postings, citing reduced investments in less profitable ventures such as MTS Auto and MTS Smart Home. The company stated it employs about 10,000 IT specialists.

Lanit, on the other hand, attributed the reported drop in vacancies to changes in their job posting platform, asserting that their staffing remains stable with 9,000-10,000 employees.

Positive Sentiment Among IT Workers

Despite fluctuations in the job market, a Calltouch study found that 85% of IT professionals in Russia are satisfied with their jobs. Additionally, efforts are underway to develop a system for certifying IT specialists’ skills through State Services, ensuring their credentials meet industry standards.

Source: Kommersant
Dan Taylor
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Dan Taylor is the founder and editor of International Search Insights (ISI), the publication behind ReadIsi, and a Partner and Head of Innovation (Search & AI) at SALT.agency. He has worked in search for more than a decade, in-house and agency-side, and is regarded as one of the West’s leading voices on search engines beyond Google, including Yandex, Baidu, Naver and Cốc Cốc. On ReadIsi, Dan covers the engines and AI answer platforms that English-language coverage tends to miss: Baidu and ERNIE, Yandex and Alice AI, Naver, Cốc Cốc, Shenma, Sogou, WeChat and Weibo search, plus DeepSeek and Alibaba’s Qwen. He also keeps dated records of documented changes, such as the Yandex, Baidu and Naver algorithm update histories and the DeepSeek, ERNIE and Qwen model update histories. His approach is to take learnings from global search engines and apply logic with a high evidence threshold. A claim needs a source, patterns seen in one market are treated as a hypothesis until they are checked in another, and where the evidence is thin he says so. For brands, that means advice built on what can be shown, with measurement that separates being cited from being chosen. Dan is credited with coining the term “edge SEO” and won the inaugural TechSEO Boost research competition in 2018 for his work on CDN and edge changes for SEO. In 2026 he was credited with coining “Infinite Tail” to describe how keyword research is changing with AI search. He is the author of AI Search Marketing For The Travel Sector, writes for Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land and Travel Marketing Guy, and has advised technology, SaaS, travel and enterprise ecommerce brands, including Cloudflare, GitLab and Airbnb. He has given multiple talks and panels at the International Search Summit in Barcelona, and has also spoken at Optimization Moscow, brightonSEO, Google Search Central Live Deep Dive Asia in Bangkok, Athens SEO and the Asia SEO Virtual Summit 2026, where his talk looked at how Baidu, Naver, DeepSeek, Tencent, Cốc Cốc and Yandex built their own AI answers.
Founder & Editor