By 2019, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector will need to hire 182,000 people. This will result in a shortage of qualified workers which the Canadian government will have to face by using all means possible to increase manpower supply as well as employers who must attract and retain talent.
Persistent disparities between populations
Looking more closely at employees working in ICT, disparities can be seen between the different populations. On the one hand, barely one job out of twenty in this sector is occupied by a young person, unlike one job out of seven in other areas of activity. Indeed, many companies do not want to invest time and money for training a young recruit who will only become a valuable person for the organization after 2 to 3 years. On the other hand are women – while women represent 47% of the total workforce in Canada, no more than 24% of them are working in ICT – and only 17% of them carry out an important role. This average of 24% drops to 16.5% in the ten largest Canadian information and communication technology companies. It is certain that there are insufficient students in universities preparing for ICT-related professions, since they think that companies will not give them the place they deserve. So to overcome this shortfall in qualified workers, companies resort to immigrants – it is estimated that one-third of the immigrant population works in ICT while only one quarter works in all other sectors. For its part, the government encourages all resources to get involved in ICT (young people, women, First Nations) and the Minister of Labour and the Status of Women, The Honourable Maryam Monsef, announced a project aiming to increase economic opportunities for women in the Canadian communication and technology sectors.
More generous employers
Over 50% of employers believe that competitive compensation attracts and retains talent. So certain fields such as the emerging technologies and mobile development offer very interesting salaries. For example, a young Android developer will earn between $70,000 and $90,000/yr and his colleague with 5 years of work experience could receive up to $120,000/yr. Professionals who have mastered statistical language models are very much in demand by financial institutions and could also see their pay soar. A recent study conducted by Hays emphasized the different measures which ICT employers can use to retain their employees: opportunity to work from home (56%), extended health benefits (54%), flexible working hours (49%), more than 10 days of vacation for new hires (45%), RRSP contributions (39%), bonus linked to individual performance (32%)…
Employees already on the job can more easily benefit from this shortage of qualified manpower in the information and communication technology sector. Young graduates, for their part, must ensure that their training meets the expectations of employers and strive to have a valuable internship to their credit.