Canadian tech talent still in demand, despite layoffs and recession predictions

Canadian tech talent still in demand, despite layoffs and recession predictions

TORONTO - Thousands of tech workers started hunting for new jobs as layoffs rippled across the industry in recent weeks, but many say 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 startups and tech giants have let go as investor exuberance around the industry faded over the last few months.


“The good ones are getting picked up in like an hour and if not, in a day or two,” said 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 trends, 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 big 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 because they “haven’t looked up from their desks in the last five to seven years.”


Two-thirds of the group immediately dove into the job search ..

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