The best city or cities for IT jobs in Canada can be summed up as what do you consider to be the best reason to take a job. Is it the highest salary or cost of living or maybe it’s just finding a job that is not too stressful and taking a pay cut, could make it the best.
One thing to consider is the climate of the city and whether there is a high crime rate or not.
All these factors and more determine which city is best for you. When taking in all of these factors plus the availability of work in your ideal city makes for a difficult choice.
If the highest salary is your main focus as well as availability and sheer numbers of jobs are what you are looking for then Toronto is by far the best city for you.
This is where we will begin, by examining the different major cities in Canada to see what each of them has to offer. Here is the list of Best Cities for IT jobs in Canada.
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Toronto
Based on the latest CBRE(Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis) ranking Toronto scores the top spot among Canadian cities based on the quality of labor, tech industry concentration 8.3%, and a 54% increase in the technology workforce.
Next to Vancouver, it has the best weather in Canada. The Main Drawback is the high cost of living. However, Pay rates are some of the highest in Canada.
Expert Market has a ranking as far as the cost of living and average salary which will surprise you. Toronto ranks 3rd in there charts coming 4th in average salary and 2nd in diversity in the workforce.
Toronto being the financial capital of Canada and a lot of multi-millionaires, you can believe it is a place that tech startups go to be successful.
The Economist even tried to name Toronto “Maple Valley” comparing it to “Silicon Valley” but it didn’t catch on.
Toronto is home to notable companies such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon Etsy, Shopify, and LG. Samsung as well as so many more major brands have invested in this city.
Kitchener/Waterloo
Most people consider Kitchener/Waterloo as one of the best places in Ontario to work.
Without Toronto’s traffic and high population density and a high concentration of tech jobs.
The CBRE ranks this area 4th in their rankings of tech cities with 20,400 tech workers and a 40% growth rate in the technology sector in just the last 5 years.
Expert Market overall ranks it as 8th with a 2nd best in rent and sixth in average salary.
Montreal
With all the cultural activities going on in Montreal and the fast-growing technology sector it is a favorite for many.
It is ranked 5th in Canada with the second most tech workers at over 130,000 but the sector’s growth rate was at around 14%.
With Montreal’s french culture and charm, it is no wonder people want to live there but you will find that most of the tech jobs require you to speak and write French, with lots of bilingual positions as well.
Montreal overall in the Expert Market had a ranking of 3rd with the 3rd place in rent and 3rd in the wage growth of the tech industry.
With Ubisoft in Montreal and is the primary gaming industry leader in Canada, not to mention its amazing nightlife Montreal is hard to beat.
Montreal’s tech talent has had better performance than Vancouver once again landing them ahead of Vancouver in the overall ranking.
Ottawa
The city of Ottawa ranks 2nd in Canada on the CBRE rankings and it is no wonder with over 64,000 tech workers and 10% of the workforce working in technology.
That is one of the highest rates in North America as far as concentration of the workforce and with such a low crime rate and a low population density working in Ottawa is a choice for many Government workers.
Ottawa was ranked as the best place to live and work with 1st place in the cost of living and 2nd place in the average salary of tech jobs.
Vancouver
The best weather by far in all of Canada as far as temperature goes. One of the most scenic parts of the country, with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop of the city.
Vancouver has around 75,000 technology workers with over 42% growth and a host of major tech firms which makes it rank 3rd in Canada.
The Expert Market overall ranking of 9th with a mention of unique opportunities with branch offices of Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft.
Quebec City
With the old-world charm and French culture all around, Quebec City is a favorite destination for tourists the world over.
You will have to know how to speak and write French to work in this city as the majority of jobs require French with some bilingual positions available.
The Tech sector employs around 25,000 people and with a 4.1% growth from 2013 to 2018, it is ranked in 8th position among cities in Canada.
Calgary
Known to Canadians as Canada’s Oil rich city, it employs around 40,000 technology workers and has a high score in labor quality, but it experienced a 7% decline over 2013-1018 and is ranked 6th in Canada.
Calgary is placed with a 2nd position ranking overall and as far as the average salary of tech workers they are number 1.
Edmonton
A sister city to Calgary, Edmonton has about 28,000 tech workers with a 25.7 % growth rate and a high score in the quality of workers, it is ranked 10th in Canada.
Edmonton features low crime rates as well as less population density than most other cities, but it still is experiencing a high growth rate in the technology sector.
This city ranked overall 6th in Canada with a high ranking in time to commute to work.
Types of jobs in demand in 2022
In today’s job market in technology, the most in-demand jobs are related to programming. If you can write code then you have a great chance to get a job easily in Canada.
The most demand programming languages are:
- Python
- Javascript
- Java
- C#
The jobs that pay the most with an average salary in the technology market at 81,750 with top earners surpassing 140,000. Y
ou can expect the top IT positions such as developer/programmer, IT project manager, and quality assurance analyst to be the top-paying jobs with Network Administrator and Technical Support Specialist rounding off the top 8 positions.
In between the top 3 and the bottom 2 you have a data analyst, IT business analyst, and software engineer.
List of Jobs on-demand with the average salary range
| Job Title | Salary range |
|---|---|
| Software Engineer / Developer / Programmer | $43,190 – $119,984 |
| System Administrator | $40,603 – $80,547 |
| IT Project Manager | $52,898 – $130,146 |
| Quality Assurance Analyst | $40,084 – $78,681 |
| Data Analyst | $39,390 – $115,689 |
| IT Business Analyst | $47,763 – $94,991 |
| Help Desk Analyst | $32,208 – $56,623 |
| IT manager | $60,651 – 117,276 |
Conclusion
There is concern among economists that these regions are creating an inequality when compared with smaller cities that don’t have a tech sector concentration.
They say only one smaller city stood out as a tech superstar and that was Waterloo. Waterloo between 2010 and 2018 had an expansion in its tech sector by 110%.
Apart from that city, they fear that Canada will turn into another US country with the people in cities being the ones with the wealth and the smaller cities will be less fortunate.
The problem they say in having such a concentration of tech jobs in just 5 cities is that the rest will have lower home valuations and suffer from inequality as seen between smaller cities and large cities in the US.
With such a vast array of choices to live you might wonder which is best even now.
You will find Toronto as having the most growth and highest paying jobs as well as Montreal with its French Culture or Vancouver with its great climate all year long, It is a varied choice to say the least, and maybe a smaller city would suit you better, it’s up to you after all.
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