A new study says Canada’s tech job market has gone from boom to bust in a matter of years.
The research from job postings site Indeed says August openings in the sector posted on its platform were down 19 per cent from their early 2020 levels.
Indeed says the fall was likely caused by either the market adjusting after a pandemic boom in hiring or recent artificial intelligence advances that have reduced tech firms’ interest in expanding their workforces.
Indeed says it is hard to tease out which of the factors was more to blame because tech job postings were already plunging when chatbot ChatGPT was released in late 2022 and triggered a surge of interest in AI.
While much of the decline in tech job postings has materialized in software engineer roles, Indeed found hiring for AI-related jobs was still up compared to early 2020.
When it compares Canada’s overall decline in tech job postings, it found the decrease from pre-pandemic levels is somewhat milder than the retrenchment it has observed in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany.