Vancouver, British Columbia - Tech Talent and Companies

Delivered April 7th, 2018. Contributors: Teresa W., Carrie G., Michael T. and

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TAM - Technical Talent in Vancouver, BC

Based on information provided by the Vancouver Economic Commission, the total addressable market for technical talent in Vancouver, British Columbia is approximately 75,000. Vancouver holds 75% of the entire British Columbia technical talent market. It is estimated that there are 2,000 current vacancies with 15,500 to 27,000 new vacancies expected in Vancouver by 2021. 

MethodologyThe data pertaining to the technical talent market in Vancouver was taken from reports published by the Vancouver Economic Commission and the BC Tech Association. The estimates exclude non-technical incidental jobs and talent that may develop from the growth and expansion of technology companies such as sales, marketing, and administrative support. Vancouver makes up 75% of the technical talent market in British Columbia. When data covered all of British Columbia, we applied the 75% market share to estimate the portion attributed to Vancouver. 

Current TAM of Technical Talent
According to the Vancouver Economic Commission, British Columbia has over 101,000 tech professionals with about 75,000 of those working in Vancouver. Over 6,800 high technology businesses in British Columbia are located in the Mainland/Southwest region with most of those located in Vancouver. Microsoft, Sony and Amazon have opened in Vancouver and there are a number of high tech clusters in the alternative energy, digital media, gaming development, and biotechnology sectors. 

Growth of Technical Talent Market
The tech sector in Vancouver employed about 28,000 in 1990. This number increased to around 58,000 by 2010. From 2010 to 2016, 8,000 new tech jobs were created. By 2017, tech sector employment reached 75,000. At current employment growth expectations, the tech sector talent pool in British Columbia is expected to grow by 16,500 by 2021. At 75%, 12,375 would join the Vancouver talent pool, bringing the total to 87,375 (16,500 X .75 + 75,000).

One of the initiatives set forth in the BC Tech Growth Strategy is to increase tech sector jobs to 120,000 by 2020. Of the 20,000 additional jobs, about 15,500, roughly 75%, could be located in Vancouver. It is estimated that there are currently 2,000 unfilled tech positions. Added to the 15,500 new jobs, the Vancouver tech talent pool will need to increase by 17,500 to meet the demand. Since only 12,375 are expected, over 5,000 will be unfilled.

However, the rapid expansion of the tech sector, in general, may result in higher than expected growth in tech jobs.  Using an expanded growth model, an estimated 36,000 new tech jobs could be created in British Columbia by 2021. At 75% of the market, Vancouver may see up to 27,000 of these new jobs, leaving over 14,000 of these new jobs vacant (27,000 - 12,375=14,625).

ConclusionThe current total addressable market for technical talent in Vancouver, BC is 75,000. The talent pool is expected to grow by about 12,375 by 2020. With an estimated 15,500 to 27,000 new tech jobs being created by 2021, approximately 5,000-14,000 of these jobs will be left vacant.  

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Vancouver, British Columbia - 10 Largest Employers of Technical Talent

Compiled below is a list of the 10 largest employers of technical talent in Vancouver, British Columbia. The list includes the following companies: SAP Canada, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Hootsuite Inc., Microsoft, Intel, iQmetrix, Absolute Software Corporation, QHR Technologies Inc., and Sophos Inc. The companies have been ranked from the smallest to the largest employer. Technical talent includes software engineers, product managers, data scientists, and designers.  

MethodologyWe began by determining what categorizes technical talent.  According to Loom & Wild’s product director, Sharon Anne Kean, technical talent includes “culture, from design and development, to data analysis and customer delight.”  It was therefore determined that technical company categories will be any that develop, manufacture, adapt or use technology. Next, we searched a combination of top Vancouver, BC companies, global top tech companies, and top tech companies in Canada. Data was organized and compared to choose the highest employee holding companies.  The information was then sorted and ranked from lowest to highest. 

Top Ten Employers of Technical Talent in VancouverSophos Inc. - 227 employees 
Specializes in Custom Computer Programming Services
 Location: Suite 1400, 777 Dunsmuir St. Vancouver BC V7Y 1K4

QHR Technologies Inc. - 243 employees 
Specializes in Computer Systems Design Services
 Location: 200-1260 Hamilton Street Vancouver, BC V6B 2S8, Canada

Absolute Software Corporation - 272 employees 
Specializes in Custom Computer Programming Services
 Location: 1400-1055 Dunsmuir St. PO Box 49211 Vancouver, BC V7X 1K8

iQmetrix - 380 employees 
Specializes in Computer Programming Services
 Location: 250 Howe Street - Suite 1210 Vancouver, BC, CANADA

Intel - 400 employees 
Specializes in Semiconductors
 Location: 450 South West Marine Drive, V5X4V2 SW Marine Dr #700, Vancouver, BC V5X 4V2, Canada

Microsoft - 800 employees 
Specializes in Software Publishers
 Location: 725 Granville Street Suite 700, Vancouver, BC, V7Y 1G5

Hootsuite Inc - 1000 employees 
Specializes in Social Media Management Systems
 Location: 5 8th Ave E Vancouver, BC, V5T 1R6 Canada

Cisco Systems -  1727 employees 
Specializes in Computer and Equipment Manufacturing
 Location: 595 Burrard Street, Suite 2123 Bentall 3 PO box 49121, Vancouver, BC V7X 1J1

Oracle - 2,737 employees 
Specializes in Computer Information Management Systems
 Location: 505 Burrard Street Suite 1400 - Bentall One Vancouver, BC V7X 1M5

SAP Canada Inc. - 2,903 employees 
Specializes in Custom Computer Programming Services 
 Location:  910 Mainland Street, Vancouver, BC Vancouver, BC V6B 1A9 

Runner-Up CompaniesTwo companies did not make the list but were still worth mentioning!

Boeing Vancouver - 215 employees 
Specializes in Computer Systems Design Services
 Location: 1146 Homer St, Vancouver, BC V6B, Canada

ACL Services Ltd. - 205 employees 
Specializes in Custom Computer Programming Services
 Location: Suite 1500, 980 Howe Street Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 0C8

ConclusionTo wrap it up the top 10 Tech companies in Vancouver determined by employee size are SAP Canada, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Hootsuite Inc., Microsoft, Intel, iQmetrix, Absolute Software Corporation, QHR Technologies Inc., and Sophos Inc.

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Vancouver. British Columbia - Remote Offices

Thank you for requesting information on tech companies that opened remote or satellite offices in Vancouver within the previous 12 months. Although we located no instance of a tech company conducting a cold open of a remote office in Vancouver within the last year, there is a significant trend of tech companies expanding into Vancouver through acquisition of existing companies.

Vancouver continues to be a very attractive city for tech startups. With comparatively low labor costs and relaxed immigration policies compared to Silicon Valley, many tech companies appear to want to move at least a portion of their operation to Canada.

Vancouver is already home to over 7,000 tech companies employing over 75,000 employees, including major tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Intel, etc., as well as being the city where tech "unicorns" like Slack, Hootsuite and Avigilon were founded. In addition, 19 new tech companies were founded in Vancouver in CY 2017.

Our research found no instance of a technical company opening a remote office between April 2017 and April 2018. However, there were three instances of technology companies acquiring existing Vancouver entities in 2017-2018:

-Payment processing software company TIO Networks (63 Vancouver employees) was purchased by PayPal on February 14, 2017.

-Web application developer Buddy Build (27 Vancouver employees) was purchased by Apple on January 2, 2018.

-Surveillance technology company Avigilon (355 Vancouver employees) was acquired by Motorola on March 28, 2018.

In conclusion, although we could find no evidence of a tech company opening a remote office in Vancouver during the time frame specified, Vancouver continues to be an attractive city for tech startups. Thank you for trusting Wonder with this information request.