Two of North America's top business hubs, Toronto and Vancouver, continue to attract technology companies.
Foreign nationals seeking immigration to Canada will find more tech jobs in Toronto and Vancouver than qualified candidates to fill them.
In contrast to New York Metro, Boston, and Washington, D.C., CBRE Research found that Toronto, Seattle produce, and Vancouver more tech degree graduates than employment.
The CBRE Group has conducted numerous market studies providing insight into the tech talent market in North America, including its Evolving Workforces: Scoring Tech Talent 2022 report.
The survey ranked Toronto as the third-best IT market in North America, while Vancouver was ranked eighth. Toronto is a young lion in the North American industry, experiencing tremendous development in the five years that concluded in December 2021.
Toronto grew its tech talent the fastest between 2016 and 2021, with an increase of 88,900 jobs. One of Canada's emerging IT markets, Quebec City in the province of Quebec, experienced rapid growth during those five years. Researchers found that Vancouver had the largest percentage growth at 63%, Toronto had 44%, and Quebec City had 43%.
As a result of the significant growth in the Southern Ontario IT industry over the past few years, it can now be considered an innovation hub due to its critical mass.
A total of 9.6% to 10.3% of their employment is concentrated in Toronto, Seattle, and the Waterloo Region of Canada. There is a significant concentration of highly skilled employees in this environment, providing a friendly environment for innovation."
The cities with the most IT jobs may not always be able to produce enough qualified candidates for the jobs that are available there despite the need for talented individuals. 108,900 new tech jobs were created in Toronto in the last five years, but only 32.9% of employers required tech degrees.
While Vancouver produced only 31.6% of the 44,460 tech degrees it required during the same period, it was even worse in terms of generating the necessary number of tech workers.
In Quebec City, where the labor shortage is the worst in the country, only 2,313 technical degrees have been awarded. For foreign nationals with computer talents, there are prospects for immigration due to a lack of tech experts in these three Canadian cities. However, other marketplaces in North America don't have these possibilities.
As more people graduate with tech degrees than jobs are available, job competition is fiercer in many regions. It is estimated that New York City has produced ten times more tech graduates than it has employed in the last five years. A 16-fold increase in new tech jobs was recorded in Boston compared to the number of graduates. As well, Los Angeles added more tech jobs than it graduated during the same time period.
In October of last year, Canadian SMBs: Optimistic, Hiring, and Trying to Make a Difference released a report on their experiences. A report by KPMG Canada says that small and medium businesses are confident, but face challenges in hiring, cyber security and supply chain because of COVID-19.
Data analytics and cyber security are two areas companies are looking to hire more workers with digital expertise in the new world. Therefore, 68% of Canadian companies had difficulty finding employees with the skills they needed to thrive. The shortage of skilled workers in Canada was already forcing many to resort to immigration at that time.
According to the research by Mary Jo Fedy, a national leader with KPMG Enterprise, "talent attraction, loyalty, and development" were the main issues. The report notes that small- and medium-sized businesses need to implement hybrid work arrangements as well as address climate, equality, and diversity issues in order to attract and retain talent.
In Canada, 80% of businesses require additional tech staff, according to CIO.com, a news site for CIOs. It was stated in that piece that Pythian's CTO Paul Lewis said that the Canadian IT skills gap would persist for at least two more years.
Companies seeking to hire foreign nationals can take advantage of this global talent and labor by utilizing the International Mobility Program and Temporary Foreign Worker Program which come under the latest Express Entry draw. As part of the TFWP, the Global Talent Stream (GTS) enables Canadian work permits to be approved and visa applications to be processed within two weeks. Foreign nationals can apply for immigration through the Express Entry program, which accepts applications online.
Expressions of interest (EOIs) are submitted online by candidates who satisfy the requirements under one of three federal immigration programs or several provincial immigration programs.
On a point-by-point basis, the candidate profiles are compared with each other using the Comprehensive Ranking System. The top applicants are the only ones who receive the ITA for permanent residence. After receiving an ITA, applicants have 90 days to complete their applications, pay processing fees, and submit their completed applications.
