The number of IT companies in Romania grew from 9,823 in 2011 to 14,339 in 2016 and is set to exceed 17,000 by the end of this year, according to a study by the Romanian Association for the Electronic and Software Industry (ARIES).
Over 100,000 people worked in the 14,339 IT companies registered at the level of 2016 and the number of IT employees grew 75% in the past six years.
During that period, the number of start-ups has doubled from 1,806 in 2011, or 18.4% of the total, to 3,795 in 2016, or 26.5% of the total.
Countrywide, the study notes a decline in the number of small companies with 1-4 employees and an increase in the number of companies with no employees. In 2011, IT companies with no employees accounted for 27% and by 2016 it grew to 35.5% of the total.
“The trend is worrisome as the hiring rate is relatively declining and IT companies with no employees account for a third of the total. More and more IT companies have a hard time finding human resources and more and more IT employees prefer to start their own companies, which reflects in the number of start-ups,” the study showed.