by Larry Sampson, New Brunswick Business Journal
According to the Information and Communications Technology Council, even at the peak of the recent recession, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) unemployment in Canada got no higher than 4.5 per cent (it’s since fallen below three per cent). Finding talent is tougher for New Brunswick than other parts of the country. While we are blessed with some excellent post-secondary institutions, not enough high-school students are enrolling in computer science or engineering. This is compounded when many of our best and brightest go away to school and don’t return, and immigrants find locations such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver more attractive than Fredericton, Miramichi or Moncton. And if you think the talent squeeze only impacts the ICT sector, think again. More than half of the 8,100-plus people employed in ICT in New Brunswick don’t work for companies whose core business is technology – they work in forestry, energy, and mining, and in insurance, government and agriculture. So low numbers aren’t just an issue for the tech companies, they’re an issue for the entire economy. It tough to leverage technology to boost productivity, or convince company “X” to relocate high-paying tech jobs to New Brunswick when you can’t find the people.
http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/journal/article/1308011
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