Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - December 2012
Analysts are growing increasingly concerned about the expected shortages in Canada�s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in the coming years.
ICT is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world right now. A recent study by International Business Machines Corp. found that 15 petabytes of data are generated each day in the world. This has resulted in data analytics, one of the four key areas in ICT, becoming increasingly crucial to the world economy.
However, in Canada, there simply are not enough analytics experts to keep up with demand. This will increasingly impact not only companies directly in the ICT sector, but also all companies who use Information Technology in any way � which essentially describes almost all businesses these days.
Last year Canada�s Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) predicted that between 2011 and 2016, approximately 106,000 IT workers would be needed. At the same time, statistics show that the portion of IT workers in Canada�s labour market is actually decreasing, from 3.6 percent in 2002 to 3.3 percent in 2011.
Since they are in such demand, IT workers� wages are increasing. The average salary range for an IT worker � from $48,889 to $72,653 is higher than the national average salary at $45,488.
Experts are now trying to figure out why more young people are not entering the field. Educators are focusing on getting across the message that a career in IT could mean a career in a wide variety of sectors � as almost all businesses today depend upon Information Technology to some extent.
Immigration will also play a key role, assuming that employers can learn how to best locate and utilize the foreign skills they so urgently need to keep up in today�s marketplace. Workers whose skills are increasingly in demand across the globe will have a harder time choosing Canada if this country does not learn how to properly align skills and employment.
Source: Financial Post
