“BC’s technology sector is at full employment, and the tech talent crunch continues to get worse. Our industry will not grow unless we can hire more people,” says Bill Tam, CEO of the British Columbia Technology Industry Association (BCTIA). “It means businesses need to be creative in their search for new workers, including looking outside of BC.”

In an effort to find more tech talent, the BCTIA co-hosted an online job fair last month, in partnership with three other regional Canadian technology associations, where 28 Canadian tech firms engaged with potential employees. Participating companies from BC included AeroInfo (A Boeing Company), Avigilon, the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program, BuildDirect, Charge Off, Elastic Path, FusionPipe, Kashoo, QuickMobile, Vision Critical, and Vivonet.

The results of this event affirm that employers should consider expanding their search for workers to other parts of Canada and the world. People are willing to relocate to BC for work, even if they are already employed, and they are particularly interested in support-oriented positions and sales/business development roles.

• Nearly three-quarters of the 600+ people registered were from Canada (60 per cent from Ontario and 21
per cent from BC).
• The second largest group came from the British Isles (England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland).
• Nearly one-third of those registered said they would relocate to Vancouver/BC.
• The majority of the job-seekers were currently employed.
• One of the most popular exhibitors was BC PNP, the Government of BC’s economic immigration program,
responsible for attracting and retaining qualified foreign workers and entrepreneurs.
• The jobs that received the most attention were:

1) Business Analyst at Elastic Path,
2) Technical Help Desk Support,
3) Support Analyst,
4) Program Manager,
5) Client Development Representative,
6) Incident Management Representative,
7) Support IT,
8) Contract Administrator,
9) Back-End Designer, and
10) Software Developer.

Download the complete news release here.

To request a copy the Canadian Tech Job Expo Summary report, please contact communications@bctia.org.