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Stacking Up: A Snapshot of Canada's Developer Tech TalentNew research unlocks understanding of developers, a critically important sector of the Canadian innovation economy TORONTO, Dec. 5, 2017 /CNW/ - Canadian software developers are key contributors to our country's technology-driven economy. Yet, Canada has not had an accurate picture of its software developer talent—until now. In an extensive new report, the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship (BII+E) at Ryerson University has partnered with Stack Overflow, the world's largest software developer online community, to better understand this influential group that forms the technical backbone of organizations, large and small, throughout the country. The report, released today and entitled Stacking Up: A Snapshot of Canada's Developer Talent, suggests that Canada has one of the largest populations and highest concentrations of developer talent globally. Toronto's developer community also emerges as one of the biggest and fastest growing within Canada and around the world. "We know that Canada's tech sector is a driver of innovation and economic growth" said Sean Mullin, Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship Executive Director. "Yet the lack of data at the developer level has prevented a complete understanding the range and depth of this increasingly important sector—upon which thousands of Canadian businesses rely." Stacking Up complements and supplements Statistics Canada data by drawing from the 2017 Stack Overflow Annual Developer Survey of over 50,000 developers worldwide, as well as traffic to Stack Overflow's website. The survey provides insights into education level, salary, scope of work, as well as other key employment, demographic and geographic distribution information. It allows readers to better understand the Canadian developer landscape, including how they work, how to recruit them and how they compare to developers around the world. "As the online resource where developers go to learn, share their knowledge and find jobs, we're seeing tremendous growth in companies trying to attract deveopers, especially across North America," said Michael Dillon, Country Lead, Stack Overflow. "Developers are the backbone of a growing tech economy. We're pleased to partner with the Brookfield Institute to shed light onto an important segment of the tech sector and to help employers as they compete for top developer talent." Report Key Findings:
Also included as part of the report is a data visualization map, which allows viewers to explore the report's key findings. Stacking Up builds upon the insights revealed in the Brookfield Institute's previously released report, The State of Canada's Tech Sector, 2016, which used an expanded definition of Canada's tech sector to shed light on its growing reach and economic impact. Sean Mullin added, "For decades, business leaders and policymakers have relied on traditional labour market information sources that can fail to accurately capture specific technical skills that are critical to success in an information economy." Stack Overflow's Developer Survey is an annual, voluntary, English-language survey. In 2017, 51,392 developers were surveyed worldwide, of which 2,223 were from Canada. The Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship (BII+E) is a new, independent and nonpartisan institute, housed within Ryerson University, that is dedicated to making Canada the best country in the world to be an innovator or an entrepreneur. BII+E supports this mission in three ways: insightful research and analysis; testing, piloting and prototyping projects; which informs BII+E's leadership and advocacy on behalf of innovation and entrepreneurship across the country. For more information, visit brookfieldinstitute.ca. Ryerson University is Canada's leader in innovative, career-oriented education and a university clearly on the move. With a mission to serve societal need, and a long-standing commitment to engaging its community, Ryerson offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate programs. Distinctly urban, culturally diverse, and inclusive, the university is home to more than 41,500 students, including 2,400 master's and PhD students, 3,200 faculty and staff, and nearly 170,000 alumni worldwide. Research at Ryerson is on a trajectory of success and growth: externally funded research has doubled in the past five years. For more information, visit ryerson.ca. SOURCE Ryerson University |