Canadian information technology companies hired almost no new employees during the industry bust of 2001, according to the first-ever Survey of Information Technology Occupations done by Statistics Canada.
Four of five IT firms in Canada did not hire any new employees in the six months prior to the period the survey was done in late 2002. Just 16 per cent of Canadian companies involved in computer systems design hired a single employee and only 4 per cent hired four or more new employees.
At the peak of the high-tech boom in the first quarter of 2001, there were 650,000 employees in Canada's computer and telecommunications industry. A year later, employment in the same sector had dropped to 586,000 and the unemployment rate among IT workers had jumped from 3.9 per cent to 6.6 per cent.
Are there any numbers indicating how many people are contracting/consulting? Perhaps one effect of the bust has been for companies to hedge bets by not taking on permanent staff but still to take people on where needed. I for one have seen an increase over the last year in companies looking for contract and consulting work, although not yet to pre-bust levels.
I'm sure there are some numbers somewhere, Brent, but I don't have them handy. One thing to keep in mind, though: This Statscan study presents fairly old data — survey done in 2002 — and is a snapshot of a fairly unique point in time. I'm not sure if you'd get the same results if you did a survey now.
This stale data problem is perennial one with Statscan. They often produce interested and comprehensive work but the data set is often two or three years old by the time we hear about it!