Study Shows Vast Skills, Labour Shortages Looming for Canada’s Tech Sector

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20 April 2011

March 29, 2011
Canada’s ICT sector, representing the country’s information, communications and technology employment base, is facing alarming skills and labour shortages in the next five years. Today’s release of Outlook for Human Resources in the ICT Labour Market, 2011-2016 by the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) , in partnership with the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) , underscores the shortages, and paints a picture of a new job market for ICT that has radically changed. ICTC also reported that all stakeholders in the sector—industry and education, the associations that represent them, and government—recognize the looming shortages and are poised to act.

The new report underscores that in most regions in Canada and for most ICT occupations, demand will far exceed supply.  Employers will encounter systemic shortages when recruiting for ICT jobs that require five or more years’ experience. The severity of these shortages will increase when employers are seeking to recruit ICT people with leading edge skills such as marketing, accounting and finance competencies.

The results also show a new job market for ICT, one that has radically changed. Industry now needs workers with the leading edge package of skills, for example systems analysis and design combined with marketing, operations management and HR management, or people with particular combinations of domain experience (such as e-health, e-finance and digital media) together with ICT expertise.

Over the next five years, Canadian employers will need to hire an estimated 106,000 ICT workers.

“The potential skills and labour shortage crisis has been identified as one of the most defining issues facing the ICT sector in Canada today, said Bernard Courtois, President and CEO of ITAC. Global job mobility, technological change, demographics, declining enrolments, and shifting investment patterns have combined to create a pending shortfall among skilled ICT workers. “ITAC and other sector stakeholders asked ICTC to help us understand the reasons for these trends and offer regional and occupational forecast,” said Courtois, “and we are now armed with this fresh survey information and ground-breaking analysis by leading Canadian experts to assess current and forecasted trends, and to recommend and implement corrective actions.”

http://www.ictc-ctic.ca

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British expats have voted Canada the best place to live in.

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According to a study of over 1,000 expats carried out by NatWest International, Canada is the country which offers the best qualify of life for Britons abroad.

92 per cent of British expats in Canada surveyed by the bank praised their working environment as "very good” or "excellent”, while 90 per cent rated their financial security as meeting the same criteria.

Canada's health care system, educational standards and attractive natural environment were similarly rated highly by respondents.

Dave Isley, head of NatWest International Personal Banking said: “This is the second year Canada has topped the tables of the NatWest IPB Quality of Life Index. Its excellent working conditions, financial security and peaceful reputation have pushed Canada into this year’s pole position.

“As a member of the Commonwealth, Canada offers Brits common values and goals shared with the UK, helping British expats settle into the country and feel at home.”

Expat Stephen Davis, who lives in Toronto, said: "The media gives excessive attention to areas of sun, sand, sea and easy living etc. Life is not like that in Canada, but what we do have is a meritocracy in an ordered and quite well-organised society... where salaries are reasonable, the country's economy is relatively sound, and almost everyone has access to high quality health care. While no country can ever be perfect, I'm personally very glad I live here."

Stephanie Ash, a British expat who lives in Thunder Bay, north-western Ontario, added that she had personally found that the quality of life in Canada was “superior to anywhere else in the world”.

“Families here enjoy a high disposable income, which means a great lifestyle,” she said. "We have large and affordable homes, a clean and beautiful environment, great employment standards, plenty of business opportunities, and world-class education."

The country does, however, have one crippling disadvantage for expats. It is one of the 150 or so countries where British migrants can expect to have their pensions frozen at the rate they are when they first start drawing them abroad - something which causes serious financial difficulties for many of the country's oldest British settlers.

New Zealand and Australia occupied the second and third places on the index respectively.

The survey found that more than half of those Britons living and working abroad earn between £50,000 and £100,000, with expats based in Hong Kong earning the highest salaries. Nearly half of the expats based there said they were earning more than £100,000 a year

Canada has long sought to boost economic and demographic growth through immigration, and has one of the highest per-capita immigration rates in the world.

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McGuinty wants more control over immigration

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TORONTO - Ontario should have greater control over which immigrants come to the province and the programs that help them settle in, Premier Dalton McGuinty says.

"We want the federal government to devolve to Ontario the authority to administer, plan and design our own integration and settlement programs for newcomers," McGuinty said.

"We also want more say in the selection of immigrants coming to Ontario so we can make choices that support our economic growth," he said Wednesday.

At present, for example, Ontario gets 16% of economic-class immigrants while the national average is 25%."

Manitoba, B.C. and Quebec have been given more autonomy over immigration matters than Ontario, he said.

Employers complain to the government that they cannot find workers with necessary skills and the province needs to be able to attract immigrants with economically important skills to boost its overall bottom line, he said.

But McGuinty said the province will still welcome new immigrants who arrive through other routes such as family reunification.

"Most of us here come from other parts of the world at some point in time and I bet you that most of our parents, or grandparents or great-grandparents didn't have extraordinary skill sets," he said.

"We started at the bottom. That's certainly where my family came into this. So we never want to shut those people out but what we do want is a better balance."

He intends to continue raising issues of concern to the province, like immigration and health care, throughout the federal campaign, McGuinty said.

Tory MPP Jim Wilson said the premier is deflecting criticism from his own domestic policies that have led to an unemployment rate that's been higher than the national average for 51 months.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath also accused McGuinty of trying to change the channel, insisting he should focus on finding appropriate jobs for immigrants who have already arrived.

"We still see many, many people who have skills who are driving cabs, who have skills who are delivering pizzas," Horwath said.

antonella.artuso@sunmedia.ca

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Canada undergoing temporary growth spurt: BoC

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The Canadian economy likely expanded by a surprisingly strong 4.2 per cent in the first three months of the year, but it was a temporary burst of activity that is already over, the Bank of Canada says in its new outlook.

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Canada , United States , Middle East

The central bank's new quarterly outlook paints a picture of an economy that is settling down to a protracted period of slow growth, being held back by a high loonie, a tapped-out consumer and government spending restraint.

The bank says the current second quarter will see growth brake to two per cent, less than half what it was in the first, in part because of supply disruptions to Canada's auto sector caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The disruption will lessen going forward, however.

On an annual basis, the economy is forecast to slow from 2.9 per cent this year, to 2.6 per cent next year and 2.1 per cent in 2013.

The overall take from the document is that the bank appears in no hurry to start raising interest rates to slow the economy because other factors are doing the job.

The bank doesn't appear to be overly worried that high oil and food prices might trigger inflation. It briefly notes that inflation may hit three per cent, at the upper end of the bank's acceptable range, in the next few months, but appears unconcerned.

"The combination of modest growth in labour compensation (wages) and higher productivity is expected to continue to dampen inflationary pressures, with the higher assumed value of the Canadian dollar providing further restraint," the bank said.

Economists had been pointing to either May or July as the most likely dates for the bank to start raising its policy rate from the current one per cent, which would have the effect of also raising short-term interest rates for such things as variable mortgages.

But the dovish tone of the latest outlook suggests interest rates could remain low longer, especially amid fears that moving aggressively in advance of the United States likely would have the undesired effect of lifting the loonie even higher.

The bank does concede that it has been taken by surprise by the 3.3 per cent expansion in the fourth quarter of 2010, and the likely even stronger 4.2 per cent spurt in the first three months of this year.

That means Canada's economy will likely return to full capacity by the middle of next year, earlier than previously expected.

But it stresses temporary factors were responsible, including stronger exports and domestic consumption, and that there is still plenty of slack in the economy.

The exports surge is already over, the bank says, and the persistently strong dollar averaging $1.03 US will continue to restrain exports going forward.

"The bank continues to project ... that the recovery in exports will be subdued relative to earlier global recoveries, with the higher level of the Canadian dollar assumed in this projection adding to long-standing competitive challenges," it said.

Consumption may remain moderately stronger than would be assumed, the bank says, in part because high commodity prices are increasing household purchasing power through gains in the terms of trade, the difference between export and import prices. It estimates the country's gross domestic income will rise by 4.7 this year.

Still, it believes the housing market will continue to cool and that government spending restraint will be a net drag on the economy this year.

The biggest engine of growth remains business investment, it says, in part because the higher Canadian dollar makes investment in foreign-made machinery and equipment less expensive.

Globally, the bank sees little change in the economic outlook, although it continues to stress risk factors such as high debt both among households and governments in the advanced economies, the Japanese crisis, turmoil in the Middle East and high commodity prices, especially oil.

Despite the risks, it says the global recovery is becoming more rooted and that even growth in troubled Europe is strengthening.

"The global economic recovery is projected to proceed at a steady pace over 2011-13," the bank says, projecting growth of 4.1 per cent this year and 3.9 per cent next.

The bank has slightly lowered its forecast for U.S. growth this year to three per cent, from its previous 3.3 per cent call four months ago.

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