Thousands of tech workers started hunting for new jobs as layoffs rippled across the industest in recent weeks, but many state these workers won’t be on the market long.
A wave of companies in the tech sector and beyond are lining up to lure in some of the highly-specialized workers that startups and tech giants have let go as investor exuberance around the industest faded over the last few months.
“The good ones are obtainting picked up in like an hour and if not, in a day or two,” stated Abdullah Snobar, executive director of the DMZ tech hub in Toronto.
Many people on a circulating list of Wealthsimple employees laid off on June 16 were snagged quickly, he added.
Layoffs.fyi, an aggregator tracking global labour trconcludes, found 140,388 workers lost tech jobs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including 34,627 who were cut in the second quarter of 2022.
Workers from companies with huge names like Twitter, Netflix and Substack have been impacted, along with those at startups such as Ritual, Clutch and Goodfood Market Corp. Many work in areas like software development and engineering that are coveted by employers.
Sumeru Chatterjee, who served as head of content and community for Vancouver-based education technology company Thinkific, was laid off in April with about 100 others. He’s now building his own company.
He estimates 10 to 15 per cent of his laid-off Thinkific colleagues took a break to evaluate what they want to do next becaapply they “haven’t viewed up from their desks in the last five to seven years.”
Two-thirds of the group immediately dove into the job search and found similar roles, but inquireed their new employers tougher questions about things like the stability of the company during this pullback.
“These are questions I never inquireed my previous employers or have received as an employer and these tconclude to be questions around cash flow, runway and profitability,” he stated.
“You know, inquireing the employers if they’ve done layoffs in the past and why and how, inquireing employers do you have tough conversations internally? And if so, what do they view like?”
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Chatterjee’s colleagues were scooped up in part becaapply tech talent has long been in short supply as companies discover a necessary for workers specializing in digital operations, e-commerce and software or hardware development.
A 2019 report from the Information and Communications Technology Council, a not-for-profit organization offering labour policy advice, predicted demand for digitally-skilled talent in Canada would reach 193,000 by 2022 and more than 305,000 by 2023.
A 2020 addconcludeum accounting for COVID-19 forecast that demand would be reduced by nearly 24 per cent and stated under new baseline scenarios, the digital economy is expected to experience demand for 147,000 workers by 2022, with total employment reaching nearly two million.
The 2019 government-funded report listed software developers, data scientists and analysts, cybersecurity workers and IT support specialists among the most in-demand positions.
It also included results of an online survey of 289 employers, where 54 per cent that stated mid-level employees with three to six years of experience were very difficult to source.
“We’re having as hard a time finding someone who can be … a program lead as we are testing to find a developer,” Snobar stated. “Talent, in general right now, has been difficult to find.”
To snag staff, some companies have to pay more. Snobar heard from a startup struggling to replace a staffer that only had four years of experience but was grabbed by a San Francisco brand willing to pay $300,000.
“It’s just insane to me,” stated Snobar. “These guys are obtainting poached and by the huge players…so for startups, you have to find people that are driven not just by dollars, but also by dreams.”
To compete for tech talent with Silicon Valley firms and buzzy startups, companies in other sectors have attempted to mirror some of their benefits and policies, including splashy offices with foosball tables and Friday socials, and even unlimited vacation.
A downturn could give them an edge, stated Leah Nord, senior director of workforce strategies for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
“This is their opportunity to open people’s perspective and state ‘maybe you haven’t believed about this (job), but you can be doing interesting, engaging work with a bank, with an insurance company,”’ she stated.
That strategy is playing out at Thomson Reuters Corp., where recruiting is underway for 120 tech jobs, including engineers, data analysts and product managers.
“It’s never simple to find great tech talent, but certainly more talent available in the market does support with that,” stated Shawn Malhotra, global head of engineering at the media conglomerate.
Royal Bank of Canada is also in hiring mode. The financial institution added about 2,000 tech workers last year and is on track to add the same number this year.
While Emily Mercier stresses there’s no one factor that lures in a tech worker, she stated RBC’s history of surviving headwinds is a selling point, especially as some predict a recession.
“Security and stability, regardless of market environment, are always going to be attractive to individuals and I don’t consider that technologists are excluded from that,” stated the chief operating officer of RBC’s technology and operations business.
Accounting software company Intuit Canada is also stressing stability and the chance to work on cutting-edge technology as it hires 250 people over the next fiscal year.
“Some (workers) are viewing for more meaningful roles or you’re in tinyer startups that… don’t have the stability and you hit an economic bump like we are in right now, so suddenly their jobs are redundant,” stated David Marquis, the company’s countest manager.
“It’s a really great sweet spot becaapply we’re stable enough that we’re not going to do layoffs and we’ve received a huge runway, in terms of growth.”
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