Ukraine Europe's Top Freelance Country - Elance

KYIV, Ukraine, January 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Ukraine took the fourth spot in the global online earnings rating on the list of the global web employment platform Elance. Total lifetime earnings by Ukrainian freelancers exceeded USD 38 million, with nearly USD 35.7 million gained by the IT industry, states the report. Over the last decade the country has demonstrated steady growth in IT outsourcing, providing services and workforce for the world's top corporations.

The global earnings leader is the U.S. (more than USD 166 million). India comes a close second with USD 165 million. Pakistan takes the third position on the list, surpassing Ukraine by mere USD 1.7 million. The fifth position on the Elance rating is taken by Canada, whose online freelancers' total earnings constituted less than half of the amount earned by Ukrainians. Curiously, Canada's freelancers earned more in creative jobs (over USD 9 million), rather than IT (USD 7 million).

The UK was the sixth on the list with the correlation between creative and IT earnings that was similar to Canada's. Interestingly, Romania became the seventh of the Elance list. Ukraine's neighbor also earned majority of its total USD 16.4 million in IT salaries. Another Ukrainian neighbor - Russia was eighth.

The report states that top in-demand IT skills included security analysis, software testing, security engineering, oracle, and game programming. Creative skills were speech writing, calligraphy, sports writing, photography, and script writing. The most recent data featured in the Elance report dates back to the third quarter of 2012.

In August 2012, Financial Times noted the boom in Ukrainian IT sector over the last decade. Article Tapping Ukraine's IT Potential informed that Ukraine earned more than USD 1 billion on its IT services export in 2011 alone. Remarkably, estimated 16,000 IT specialists graduate in Ukraine every year. The country boasts the largest pool of engineering resources in Central and Eastern Europe. Ukraine is also the world's fifth largest software exporter.

In 2013-2023, enterprises producing software are exempt from VAT on software supply operations in Ukraine. The tax relief will apply to the supply of operating systems, regular computer programs, online services, etc. Nearly 1,000 outsourcing companies are registered in Ukraine. They provide services to Microsoft, HP, IBM, EBay, etc.