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Across Canada, tech job growth is high, putting pressure on talent pipelines everywhere.
According to data released by CBRE through its Tech-30 report, Vancouver saw 44% growth, placing them first on the continent. The BC city was followed by another iconic Canadian tech hub, Toronto, at 37%.
“Vancouver had the highest high-tech job growth at 44% and Toronto created the most jobs (60,000) over the past two years,” the report noted.
Vancouver’s tech scene employs 92,000, a figure which has nearly tripled since 2010. Toronto employs more than 220,000 tech workers. Other regions like Calgary have similar talent supply and demand issues on smaller scales.
“Tech industry job growth remains well above the national average,” the report states. “Economic headwinds in the year ahead likely will slow but not end high-tech job growth.”
Overall, the North American tech market has created nearly two million jobs in the past decade, with roughly a quarter of those roles being created just within the last two years.
Deloitte’s recent “Technology, Media & Telecommunications 2023 Predictions” report highlights the biggest global tech trends and how they could impact businesses, consumers, and talent.
In the current market, consumers “are looking for more cost-effective ways to communicate, to be entertained, and to be productive, while businesses are looking for efficient ways to innovate in order to compete, differentiate, and grow revenue,” said Kevin Westcott, of Deloitte, and such demand for innovation tends to open up new potential career opportunities.
For example, Deloitte predicts the number of video game company mergers and acquisitions will continue to increase by around 25%. With “pent-up demand for next-gen experiences,” Canada’s video game sector is heating up to new levels and companies will need talent to make it happen—especially in Vancouver, an “established gaming centre of excellence” according to Deloitte, as well as Montreal, whose gaming engines are some of the core technologies underpinning the next wave of games.
Other sectors to keep an eye on include semiconductors—where a supply shortage is so bad that artificial intelligence is being employed in an effort to “help close the chip talent gap”—and e-commerce, which continues its unabated growth even in the face of market downturns and inflation.
In fact, new trends like “Buy Now, Pay Later” and “social shopping” are opening up whole new gateways of digital commerce, and companies are capitalizing, with talent in tow.
BNPL payments are projected to grow more than 60% to reach $6 billion in Canada this year, according to data analytics company Research and Markets. These payments expect to account for up to a quarter of all global e-commerce transactions by 2026.
Meanwhile, Deloitte predicts spending for goods and services on social media will surpass US$1 trillion globally in 2023, growing 25% annually with more than two billion people shopping this way in the last year.
“The social commerce market is outgrowing traditional e-commerce,” the report stated.
Looking to join Canada’s white-hot technology sector? Attend a free Tech Talent Canada Job Fair to forge an epic career path in Canadian tech.