An ICTC Brief
Smart City Priority Areas and Labour Readiness of Canadian Cities
Published by ICTC, August 2019
A study by ICTC found that in recent years, the employment of ICT professionals was consistently outpacing total employment across the economy at a rate of six-to-one. At the same time, developments like blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), 5G mobile networks, 3D printing, and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) are creating an accelerated need for digital skills across all sectors. This demand is so pronounced that even without smart city development, it is estimated to reach upwards of 216,000 by 2021. As a result, the ability to etch pathways for the development and attraction of highly-skilled talent to meet the needs of our quickly-evolving cities are key to the sustainability of our Canadian urban landscape.
The disruption of traditional employment skillsets creates the need for the development of new skills — and when considering smart city growth, these skills need to be future-proof. Moreover, as industries increasingly recognize the importance of a digital adoption and digitally-based growth strategies, competition for tech workers has increased. Increasingly, all jobs will have a digital component, and traditional skillsets across a variety of occupations will see shifts with smart city growth.
Overall, smart city developments may still be nascent in Canada, with much planning and organization to take place in the coming years on this journey. However, work must be completed today to understand which skills will be needed across a number of occupations — including those that correspond to both high-skilled and lower-skilled jobs.
Researched and written by Alexandra Cutean (Senior Director, Research & Policy), Trevor Quan (Senior Research Analyst) and Holly Brown (Assessment Administrator), with generous support from the ICTC Research & Policy Team.
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