2025 Canada Tech and IT Job Market Outlook

3.3%* May 2025 unemployment rate

As organizations push forward with digital transformation initiatives, tech hiring remains a top focus—particularly for roles supporting AI integration, cybersecurity, ERP initiatives, cloud computing and data infrastructure. For many companies, project-based or short-term needs are a primary driver for expanding their tech and IT teams in the months ahead.

But hiring challenges persist and, in some cases, are putting critical projects at risk. Specialized roles are especially tough to staff, and tighter budgets mean many teams are running lean and doing more with less. In response to these challenges, many tech leaders are blending permanent hires with contract professionals and upskilling internal teams to maintain momentum on priority initiatives.

Technology leaders report it takes roughly 5 weeks to hire candidates for permanent roles.

said evaluating applications and determining which candidates to interview is their greatest hiring challenge. said evaluating applications and determining which candidates to interview is their greatest hiring challenge.

Hiring for strategic priorities: permanent and contract staff

Technology leaders shared their top priorities through the end of the year for hiring permanent employees and contract talent.

Security of IT systems and information

AI and machine learning initiatives

Technology modernization

Automation initiatives

AI and machine learning initiatives

Cloud initiatives

Key skills for tackling technical debt

Left unchecked, technical debt can drain resources and impede progress on digital transformation across the organization. When hiring talent to address cross-departmental technical debt, prioritize candidates with these capabilities:

Strategic vision to modernize systems and map complex workflows

Strong business analysis skills to translate technical concepts and build consensus across departments

Proven track record developing scalable frameworks for sustainable system transformation

43% of technology leaders reported skills gaps within their department, and 50% said the impact of those gaps has increased in the last year.

AI, machine
learning (ML)
and data
science IT operations
and support Cybersecurity
and privacy ERP/CRM
development
and
management AI, machine
learning (ML)
and data
science IT operations
and support Cybersecurity
and privacy ERP/CRM
development
and
management

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Almost all tech leaders need to add new staff or at least maintain current headcount to deliver on top business priorities. Yet 88% of those hiring said it’s challenging to find the talent they need in the IT hiring market.

of tech leaders are hiring for new permanent positions. of tech leaders are hiring for new permanent positions.

are hiring only for vacated permanent positions. are hiring only for vacated permanent positions.

Hiring plans for the second half of 2025: contract professionals

54% of tech leaders said they’re increasing their use of contract talent. They also shared what they view as the greatest value in engaging these professionals.

Access to specialized skills or expertise

Cost savings compared with permanent hiring

Flexibility in scaling workforce

Faster staffing for critical roles

Technology professionals in highest demand

The following positions are in the top 15% of in-demand technology roles, according to an analysis of thousands of job postings and Robert Half placements.

AI/ML analyst

Business systems analyst 

Cybersecurity analyst

Data scientist

DevOps engineer

ERP technical/functional analyst

Help desk tier 3

IT operations manager

Machine learning engineer

Software engineer/developer

Learn more about the top roles in demand

Make sense of shifting job market dynamics

Our Labour Market Overview puts the latest reports from Statistics Canada in context. Get data on employment trends and unemployment numbers, as well as our exclusive analyses of job posting data. 

Get the latest info

*Statistics Canada, seasonally adjusted, June 2025.

The surveys cited were developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm. Results may not total 100% due to rounding or allowing for multiple responses. Respondents included executives and hiring managers from small (10-99 employees), midsize (100-999 employees) and large (1,000-plus employees) businesses in private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across Canada.

Over 420,000 new positions from more than 5,400 unique independent job boards and company websites provided by TextKernel are represented in our analysis of in-demand roles, including 6,300-plus placements from Robert Half. This dataset includes roles across the finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, and human resources professions.