Montreal Tech Watch

This is not exactly news, but I thought I might share a new study published by TechnoCompétences, an organization tracking the IT workforce in Québec.

TechnoCompétences said IT was hit very hard in the beginning of the decade, with companies laying off personel by thousands, while the rest of companies just went busted. However, TechnoCompétences’s new study showed that the IT industry is now expanding at very high rates. Between 2001 and 2007, the IT industry in Québec is growing +29% while it’s just at 16% for other Canadian provinces. More details here [pdf]

The organizations also predicts that the industry will hire 7000+ people each year until 2010.

MontrealTechWatch does not specifically track the IT industry, but it’s still good to know the larger picture. It’s well known for instance that youth are shying away from computer science and other related fields. While cégeps could easily fill each 4/5 classes in 2000, they now have trouble filling one small class. Last year (2006 to 2007), applications to CS degrees (and related) fell by 20%. This year (2007 to 2008), applications fell again by 19%. This impacts everyone, from recruiters at Bell Canada, recruiters at videos games companies like Ubisoft, to new technology startups looking to complete their technology team. It’s still possible today to find talent in Québec, but it looks like it will be a major barrier tomorrow.

I am not sure how the situation is in other provinces, and how they are dealing with it. In Québec, I am expecting salaries to go up; specialized recruiters having great business; at the expense of small & new technology companies who might not have the financial resources to compete with large companies like Videotron or big banks. So if you are starting a company, you should be aware of this problem, and try to come up with a great formula to attract talent (office perks like the guys at standoutjobs; high salaries, like what capazoo did; or try to connect from the very beginning with the developer “community” like what Akoha is doing). Or come up with a new solution to solve the problem of IT talent shortage.