The tech job market in Canada has cooled in recent years, but the talent crunch hasn’t gone away—it’s just becoming more complicated.
Patrick MacKenzie,
Canada’s immigration system is “a human capital model that doesn’t assess human capital.”
Immigrant Employment Council of BC
These tensions set the stage on a recent evening at Northeastern University’s Vancouver campus, where founders, recruiters, and tech leaders gathered for a Vancouver Tech Journal panel on “The Demographic Crunch and How We Keep Tech Scaling.”
Even amid layoffs and a more cautious hiring environment, 70 percent of Canadian businesses say a shortage of skilled workers is holding them back, according to a recent survey by Equinix. Roles in cloud computing, AI, cybersecurity, and data analytics remain especially hard to fill.
Canada’s talent pipeline isn’t keeping pace with industry demand: The Future Skills Centre, an independent research institute, estimates that 90 percent of jobs will soon require digital skills—which the institute says go beyond coding and software development to a deeper understanding of how to adopt digital tools in the workplace.
Despite that need, just over half of Canadian workers currently have the ability to do that. At the same time, Canada continues to lose startups, founders, and STEM graduates to the United States, drawn by deeper pools of capital and larger tech ecosystems. For many Canadian tech startups, being acquired by a US firm remains the gold standard.
Barriers for immigrants, young workers
One of the biggest disconnects in the local tech labour market, panellists said, isn’t a lack of talent—but a system that struggles to connect it with employers. Patrick MacKenzie, the CEO of the Immigrant Employment Council of BC, who also served for a decade at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said many immigrants arrive with strong credentials and years of experience, only to find themselves underemployed or overlooked. He said employers are often eager to hire newcomers but unsure how to evaluate foreign credentials or translate international experience into the Canadian context.
MacKenzie added that Canada’s immigration system relies heavily on proxies like degrees and formal qualifications rather than practical ability—creating a disconnect between who is selected to immigrate and who employers ultimately hire. “It’s a human capital model that doesn’t assess human capital,” he said, pointing to a system that rewards credentials on paper but often fails to translate that talent into real workforce participation.
Mentorship and workplace integration can help bridge that divide, MacKenzie suggested. He pointed to data from his organization showing that 76 percent of immigrants who completed mentorship programs secured job interviews within six months. But he warned that, without broader policy reforms (such as rethinking the international student cap), Canada risks sidelining skilled talent even as employers continue to report shortages.
Early-career workers are facing similar barriers, with many new graduates struggling to secure entry-level roles in Canada’s increasingly competitive tech sector. Moderator David FitzGerald, whose recruiting firm, Starboard Recruitment, operates primarily in the tech-mining space, said companies today are prioritizing senior individual contributors—hands-on problem-solvers who can immediately contribute—rather than junior hires or managers. That leaves younger candidates struggling to gain a foothold in an already competitive market.
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The hiring process itself has become increasingly opaque, filtered through layers of AI before a human ever enters the picture. FitzGerald said many candidates now find themselves stuck navigating applicant tracking systems (ATS): uploading resumes into digital portals with little visibility into what happens next. “There’s so much noise in the market,” he said, adding that job seekers often end up “throwing themselves into a bucket full of a lot” rather than building direct connections.
Steve Eccles, regional dean and CEO of Northeastern University Vancouver, said these AI screening tools can disadvantage candidates who don’t fit standardized communication norms. Neurodiverse applicants, in particular, may be filtered out by assessments that prioritize consistency over individuality.
The pandemic also left a lasting mark on the generation of young workers now entering the tech labour force, as Victoria Brydon, founder-principal at Brydon Strategies and former chief people officer at D-Wave Systems, noted. Many students finished high school and university from their bedrooms, with remote classes, virtual co-ops, and limited opportunities to build confidence in professional settings. The disruption, she said, means some young workers are arriving with less exposure to workplace norms—not because of a lack of ability, but a lack of opportunity.
Brydon argued that employers need to offer more mentorship, clearer guidance, and a recognition that this cohort’s career paths were shaped by an unprecedented moment. Other panellists urged young workers to take a more entrepreneurial approach to their careers: building networks, looking beyond big tech employers and major cities, and proactively reaching out to experienced professionals.
Gap extends to executive level
But the talent gap doesn’t end at the entry level. Brydon pointed to a growing vacuum at the executive stage where Canada lacks leaders with experience scaling companies into global giants. “You don’t get executives that have gone through going public, or that have gone through scaling to be a multi-billion dollar global company, that have done mergers and acquisitions,” she said. “Unfortunately, that is a lot of the skills that I still see being recruited from the US.”
Even so, panellists emphasized that Canada’s talent challenges are far from insurmountable. The bigger issue, Eccles argued, isn’t just quantity, but readiness. To compete globally, Canada will need a workforce that is larger, more adaptable, and committed to continuous learning. In a fast-moving tech economy, tech workers can no longer rely on static skillsets; they will need to constantly reskill and reinvent themselves to keep pace with change.
FitzGerald suggested the foundation is already there. Canada—and Vancouver in particular—has many of the same underlying strengths that helped build Silicon Valley, from strong universities to global talent pipelines and access to capital. “The difference is the recipe and how those ingredients kind of come together,” he said. Improving housing affordability, unlocking economic growth through major projects, and creating conditions where talent can build long-term careers will be critical to making that equation work.
Feature image courtesy Mihika Agarwal for BetaKit.