|
|
|
|
Check out Eagle’s Job Centre for the best in IT job opportunities and The Eagle Blog for our CEO’s views on the industry, business, and life! |
In this issue: 4 Industry News |
Two years ago in December 2007, the big deal was in the gaming space with Warcraft maker Vivendi Games merging with Activision in a $9.85 Billion creation of a new gaming entity, there were a number of other deals but nothing huge. In December 2008 the poor economy was the big news. Sony, Yahoo, Adobe, Nokia and AT&T all announced layoffs. A $41 Billion deal to buy Bell Canada fell through over liquidity concerns, mass layoff numbers were up and various studies were cautious about hiring plans for 2009. On the M&A front the biggest deal involved a couple of private equity companies buying a Danish IT company (KMD) for $375 Million; Sierra Wireless paid $277 Million for Wavecom; and Wipro paid $127 Million for the IT arm of Citigroup.
So what is happening in December 2009? To be honest, if we leave out stories about famous golfers, then not very much! Of course Globalive might disagree, as their ability to operate in the wireless business in Canada was enabled by Industry Canada, after an initial negative reaction from the CRTC. The Wind Mobile brand is now competing with the more established suppliers.
On the M&A front there were no big announcements . Microsoft had a couple of smaller (by their standards) acquisitions focused on different verticals, Opalis for the data centre business and Sentillion for the Health Care world. Google made a small acquisition (AppJet), IBM added database security vendor Guardium and there were a couple of other deals during the month.
A couple of indicators were positive, PC sales are up again, Spherion’s employee confidence index rose (but more people are looking to change job), the US Conference Board index rose and employment was up in Canada.
A couple of British reports and a German one were quite pessimistic about the upcoming year, forecasting wage cuts and layoffs, and another German report is forecasting severe labour shortages by the year 2015. Finally a Robert Half survey suggests that many IT shops are under manned which will need to be addressed if companies are going to be able to implement their IT strategies.
December tends to be a quieter month in the technology world, but 2009 was quieter than most. Perhaps it was because there was so much activity already through the year, perhaps it was because everyone is tired after such a tough year. Whatever the reason the topics of conversation in December were much more about Tiger Woods than about the latest acquisition in the tech world, or any other tech related story.
Wishing you every success for “Twenty-ten” and hopefully these newsletters will be filled with more positive news than those reported in 2009!
For more stories and the details behind the above snippets, click here.
IT JOB MARKET ACROSS CANADA – Quarterly Update
Overall employment across Canada remained fairly consistent this past quarter, with Statistics Canada reporting the Canadian unemployment rate at 8.5% in both November and December. Employment in the public sector actually decreased in December which was offset by a notable increase in self-employment. Across Canada, Alberta had the largest rise in employment while Manitoba seems to have taken the biggest hit, with employment declining by 4,600 last month.
In Western Canada, some regions are still experiencing hard times due to the recession; however, many cities are seeing more job opportunities as markets start to pick-up. Calgary, in particular, seems to be ahead. Oil prices are reasonable and both oil and gas prices have stabilized, allowing companies in the industry to return to some previously shelved projects. Suncor’s acquisition of Petro-Canada had spurred a lot of activity and turmoil in the resource market, while Encana and Cenovus’ split was completed and saw a lot of hiring. There are reports that top candidates seeking jobs are beginning to receive multiple offers again, suggesting that the market is well on its way to reabsorbing the jobless shed in the downsizing of the past year. Hot jobs in Calgary include: Project Managers and Business Analysts, as well as Content Management and SAP resources.
British Columbia is also starting to recover, although in slower fashion than Calgary. Most of the recovery has been felt in Vancouver, where companies are beginning to shake off the effects of the recession and the Olympics are fuelling the need for ramped up help desk resources. Victoria, however, is still pretty quiet due to a dearth of government spending.
Edmonton and Winnipeg are two regions in Western Canada still struggling. Both cities’ IT industries rely heavily on either government or service companies, whose main client is the government. The municipal and provincial governments, though, are not spending due to deficits caused by the recession. The Alberta Government’s hiring freeze has caused all levels to cancel projects or not extend existing contractors’ contracts. Skills that are in demand include Project Managers, Business Analysts, and Security resources. In Manitoba, the NDP leadership transitioned smoothly and appear to be waiting out their fiscal year before considering new spending. Winnipeg’s financial industry also appears to be very quiet as they rework/re-commit to their strategies given the new economy. Network Administrators and Business Analysts seem to be the hot jobs in Winnipeg.
Rates are holding firm in Calgary and BC, but are still depressed and, in some cases, still declining in Edmonton and Winnipeg as many IT professionals have been without work or contracts for some time. There is also still news of pending layoffs in Edmonton and Winnipeg which is impacting both supply of available resources and rates. As supply of available resources is still quite strong across the West and companies are still intently focused on cost control, rate increases for contract extensions are few and typically come with a corresponding change in scope. Additionally, the percentage of contractors accepting extensions to their current contract has been very high as suitable alternatives have been much more difficult to find. Last quarter many companies across the West took advantage of the market conditions to tender for new resource supply agreements as a way to cut costs and lock in the lower rates.
With the exception of Vancouver, full-time hiring is still down. Many companies often require several levels of management approval before a requisition can be created and they are very cautious with the newly stabilizing economy. In Vancouver, permanent hiring has increased modestly, especially towards the end of November and into December.
The overall job market in the GTA is still feeling fallout from the recession as the December unemployment rate remained at 9.5% as it did in November (the rate is 0.2% higher than the province of Ontario’s unemployment rate and an entire 1.0% above the entire country). The IT job market in the region is growing, with both government and financial institutions undertaking more projects and raising demand for more resources in both contract and permanent positions. Permanent placements, in particular, are growing within the Retail and Financial industries as they seek fulltime resources, mainly Project Managers, Infrastructure Managers, Business Analyst and Enterprise Architects.
Other skills in the Toronto area that continue to be hot include Business Transformation and ERP specialists, including SAP Functional Analysts, as well as Oracle Financials and PeopleSoft Resources.
A notable trend in the region is the significant increase in Systems Integrator activity. These companies, over the last quarter, have picked up a good amount of projects from the local market and are starting to demand more resources. The attitude of IT professionals has not changed much in the past quarter. They continue to be cautious in their job hunts and are searching for those long-term, more stable contracts, or even permanent positions.
In Eastern Canada, clients and candidates alike are nervously wondering what 2010 will hold for them. With what can easily be described as the toughest year in recent memory, for companies and individuals, there are signs of better days ahead, but also signs of more of the tough stuff.
In Ottawa, often viewed as an insulated economy, the two biggest drivers, the Federal Government and a very distant second the Technology marketplace, continue to struggle with different challenges. As the year wound down, many government clients had immediate, if not pipeline, demands for resources but were simply unable to navigate procurement and/or funding challenges. With the government’s stimulus efforts putting government in a deep deficit position, many projects are under greater scrutiny than ever and some departments have already felt a significant pinch, if not deep bite, in available dollars to fund new hiring or even continued projects. Clients also add that the grind through procurement or contracting approval is as difficult and slow as ever. What is not in doubt, though, is there is absolute and clear demand for these resources as many projects that have been in the hands of large vendors, some quite significant, will soon be at the stage that they be turned back to the Feds to run and there will be significant skill shortages to do that in the months and years ahead. Many Federal Government PMO’s will be in this very situation as we look ahead and government will no doubt turn to industry to augment those with the skills and resources needed to operate effectively.
The “high technology” market in Ottawa has all but disappeared from the heydays of yore with the exception of a couple bright lights. It’s hoped that as one or two of those aforementioned bright lights blossom, there will be a renewed spark in the market and employment opportunities will follow. In the interim, though, the two drivers of the Ottawa market – technology and the Federal Government – were seen as the two poor performers that caused an unexpected jump in the Ottawa unemployment rate in Ottawa in December.
In Montreal, the market is definitely seeing a palpable up tick in demand as requirements have grown steadily through the fall and through the New Year. The Montreal market seems at though it will continue be an active one through the spring and beyond.
Hot skills in Ottawa include: Oracle, Siebel, as well as IVR skills. In Montreal they include Security Consultants, .NET and Java Developers, as well as PMs and BAs.
From a rocket of the future to a $10 million lightbulb, here are TIME’s picks for the best new gadgets and breakthrough ideas of the year. More…
5 Most Notorious Data Breaches of 2009
This year companies continued to be felled more by usual issues such as lost laptops, un-patched or poorly coded software, inadvertent disclosures and rogue insiders, rather than by sneaky new attack techniques or devastating new hacker tools. More…
Five Social Media Tips and Traps for Business
Social media is here to stay as part of all businesses long-term marketing programs. More…
The Top 10 Technology Stories of 2009
Windows 7, Chrome, Twitter and Droid make for another busy year in tech. More…
The Global CIO Job Description
Let’s take the glamorous title of “Global CIO” and break it down into some of the job realities. What do multinational CIOs have to do that their domestic counterparts don’t? More…
The Carpal Tunnel Survival Guide
Carpal tunnel syndrome and RSI–the bane of the modern computer user–hit home for me because I spent too much time using poorly placed touchpads and seriously scrunched keyboards. But I’ve gleaned a thing or two about ergonomics as a result. My misery is your chance to learn. More…
Why 5 of the Decade’s Most Anticipated Products Failed
Hindsight is 20/20, and looking back, it’s easy to see why these five highly publicized launches soon fizzled. More…
Dumbest Moments in Business 2009
Loudmouth CEOs, islands in the desert and bringing dead celebrities back to life. Fortune’s annual list of the business world’s bonehead plays marches on. More…
For a listing of Eagle’s latest job postings, please visit Eagle’s Job Centre. In addition to searching for the latest jobs, Eagle’s Job Centre gives you the ability to create your profile, update your profile, update your resume and search all jobs.
Eagle is always looking to meet new contractors who have the skills that match our clients’ needs. If we place your qualified referral on contract, we will happily say thank you to the tune of $500.
For more information, please refer to our website or contact the National Eagle Staffing Solutions Team (NESST) at 1-866-78NESST (63778) or via email at NESST@eagleonline.com.
Have a comment or question about the newsletter? Please send it to: feedback@eagleonline.com.
