“The latest innovations in ICTs – in particular the Internet of things (IOT) as well as social, mobile, analytics, apps and cloud (SMAAC) – have become drivers of innovation, productivity and growth,” the report said. “…It is projected that the availability of homegrown ICT talent will not be sufficient to meet these hiring requirements.”

Most employers will still have difficulty recruiting individuals with the right blend of technical and business skills. “Unless adequately addressed, this will cause particular strife to Canada’s prosperity, as growth in Canadian workers’ productivity levels has fallen notably since 2001,” according to the report.

The researchers said “employment growth – combined with replacement demands due to skills mismatch, retirements, and other exits, demand-supply imbalances will affect some occupations more than others.”

Among the high demand occupations identified by the report were:

  • Information systems analysts and consultants
  • Computer and network operators and web technicians
  • Computer programmers and interactive media developers
  • Software engineers
  • Graphic designers and illustrators
  • Computer and information systems managers
  • Database analysts and data administrators