Canada needs tech talent

Canada is losing tech talent and as a consequence, Canadian companies are trying to attract foreign talent to move north.

This is according to a report published December 2020, by Innovation Economy Council entitled Magnetic North: How Canada Holds its Own in the Global Race for Innovation Talent.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the Canadian economy, affecting three million jobs in the process.

Occupations in the information and technology sector also took a hit when Canada went into lockdown to curb the spread of the virus. However, unlike other occupations, STEM jobs have recovered spectacularly.

In fact, STEM jobs are even more abundant than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.STEM-related employment across the country was 8.7 per cent higher in October than in February. Examples of these jobs include programmers, engineers and other tech workers.

One possible explanation for why tech jobs in particular were resilient through the pandemic may come down to the industry’s readiness to transition online, allowing employees to work remotely.

Foreign companies are also tapping into the talent available in Canada. Since tech companies are realizing that employees can work from practically anywhere, many are creating opportunities for Canadians. This may explain why tech giants such as Google and Facebook have opened up shop in Canada over the last five years.

Canada continues to build its reputation as a tech hub. For example, the software company Gatik opened up a research hub in Toronto, early last year, to attract the local talent available from Waterloo and the University of Toronto.

“Toronto has been touted as a new Silicon Valley… There’s no better place than Toronto, as far as we’re concerned” says Richard Steiner, head of policy and communications at Gatik.