U.S. tech workers look north

Employees more likely to job hunt in Canada, study shows

VANCOUVER — A new study shows U.S. technology sector workers are more likely than those in other industries to job hunt north of the border, and have increasingly been doing so after Donald Trump secured the presidency and assumed office.

“I think it’s potentially a really big opportunity for Canada over the next couple of years,” said Daniel Culbertson, an economist with Indeed, the job search site that produced the report.

The company’s search data shows the average American looking for work on their site in a foreign country clicks on Canadian job listings for roughly 12 per cent of their total search.

For tech workers, the company says, that figure jumped to nearly 30 per cent for the six months ending May 2017. That’s up about seven per cent from the same time last year.

The prospective employees gravitate to Waterloo Region, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.

The only place they’re looking more frequently is India, which netted nearly 40 per cent of clicks, said Culbertson. After Canada, there’s “a pretty big drop off,” he said, with almost eight per cent of clicks going to jobs in the U.K.

American tech workers’ growing interest in Canada is significant, said Culbertson, and likely due to Canada’s strong economy and America’s controversial president causing some tech industry insiders to at least entertain a move to the Great White North.

Searches spiked near the U.S. presidential election Nov. 8 and Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20, the company’s data shows.

While that interest fades as time moves farther past those high-profile dates, Culbertson said the political drama out of the White House continues to stay in some job seekers’ minds.

The increased interest provides an opportunity for Canada to harness some serious talent, he said, as the prospective employees are seeking jobs that require high skills, like senior software engineer, or specialized abilities, like cloud engineer.