Since when are there three IT companies in Serbia at the same time laid off more than 500 workers a month has passed, and many employees of these companies, with whom "Vreme" spoke, have not yet found a job.
"The news about the layoffs spread immediately, everyone was just buzzing about it for days, a hundred colleagues called me," one of the former employees of these companies told "Vreme". "We felt like some renegades, although it was clear to everyone that it was not our fault."
The situation on the employment market in the IT sector in Serbia today is noticeably more challenging than a year or two ago, confirms Zoja Kukić, one of the founders of "Startit", which deals with the IT sector. "Although the biggest waves of layoffs in certain companies were the most visible in the media, it is important to say that there were also smaller, quieter cuts in other companies that were not publicly discussed. All of this together affects the feeling of insecurity in the market and greater competition among candidates."
Why layoffs in IT are raining in Belgrade: Serbian programmers must change
In one place - 2.500 applications
The market, of course, reacted immediately, so now several hundred people find it significantly more difficult to find a job. Of the three people "Vreme" talked to, only one found a new job and that after three conversations. They also say that many of their colleagues have spent this month applying for ads, but that many have not found anything yet.
If we were talking about another sector in Serbia, it would not be strange, because in some professions it is almost impossible to find a job. For example, no one has been looking for sociologists for years, and journalists are not valued, especially if they refuse to work for pro-regime media and tabloids.
However, this is an amazing thing in the IT sector. Because some of these employees have lost their jobs before, because the start-ups where they worked would close or they would take on too much work and change their mind and fire a small part of people. Nevertheless, IT professionals, who are the "cream of the workforce" in Serbia, would then find a job in no time. The only thing at stake was whether they would get a slightly lower salary or a job that suited them a little less. Not so now.
"Just two or three days after the mass layoffs, people started sending us CVs and writing to us on our private phones," an IT employee told Vreme, who works in a rival company that still survived. "At that moment, we had several open competitions, and as many as 2.500 people applied for one position. Now we can really choose."
One of the key reasons why the market is extra sensitive is the fact that Serbia is a dominant outsourcing market, explains Kukić.
"Changes in global business models, especially under the influence of the development of artificial intelligence, directly spill over into the local market," she adds. "We're already seeing signs that companies are considering bringing some of the work they previously outsourced back in-house, where in-house teams with the help of AI tools can manage a larger volume of work."
It's a different story outside.
It is interesting, however, that global trends are not unequivocally negative. For example, in the US, after the initial wave of layoffs and job cuts due to AI, there is again a growth in the number of open positions for programmers, as well as an increase in the hiring of junior staff, which was contrary to earlier fears that these positions would be the first to disappear.
According to an analysis of LinkedIn data, which The Wall Street Journal wrote about, between 2023 and 2025, AI contributed to the creation of 640.000 new jobs, including completely new roles such as AI engineer or Head of AI.
"What I see with the European and regional startups I collaborate with is that companies are actively looking for ways to improve their business through AI. This does not necessarily mean a reduction in the need for people — on the contrary, in many cases the need for new profiles and additional staff opens up, not only in engineering teams, but also in product, marketing and operations," adds Zoja Kukić.
"Productive people" are wanted
If we start from the assumption that AI increases the productivity of employees, she says, then the future can be like that and we expect that companies will want to have as many "productive" people as possible.
"In the long term, we are not talking about the disappearance of jobs, but about the transformation of the way of working and the structure of teams. However, in the short term, the transition to such a model inevitably brings turbulence, which is currently reflected in the labor market in Serbia," she says.
Real journalism costs money, and we will not be bought by tycoons and corporations. Support us with a one-time or monthly donation. The time for it is now!
