Tech Talent Canada

 

5 Things You Need To Know About Canada’s Tech Talent

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Earlier this year the Brookfield Institute examined tech workers across the country to shed light on Canada’s tech occupations and the diversity and equity within them.

Adding almost 200,000 new jobs since 2016, Canada’s highly-skilled tech workers are becoming a major component of Canada’s workforce.

Using brand new methodologies and powerful data visualizations, Who are Canada’s Tech Workers? looks to provide a clear and concise resource for anyone looking to learn more about Canada’s tech talent and its growing impact on our economy.

Here are some of the key findings:

One in 20 Canadians worked in a tech occupation

In 2016, one in 20 Canadian workers were in a tech occupation. This amounts to about 1 million people working in tech, for example as engineers, video game designers, and software developers.

Our tech workforce has grown by more than 20 percent in 10 years

180,000 people, or one in five tech workers in Canada, joined the tech workforce in the last 10 years. That’s twice as fast as Canada’s population growth over the same period. This means that tech is growing fast, and is becoming a pervasive force in our economy.

Tech work is everywhere, from Ottawa to Calgary

Though Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa had the highest number of tech workers, several other cities are home to significant numbers of tech workers. In particular, Fredericton, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Calgary’s tech workforces have grown significantly since 2006.

Tech workers are highly paid, and highly educated

Tech workers on average earned $27,000 more than non-tech workers, and the majority held at least a Bachelor’s degree. That’s double the share of people with a university degree in Canada.

Tech workers are diverse, yet inequities persist

Almost one in three tech workers were immigrants, and the same number belonged to a visible minority group; however, a number of visible minority groups were notably underrepresented, and only one in five tech workers were women. Yet, these groups were consistently paid lower compared to their counterparts – men and non-visible minorities.