IT Worker Shortage Feared in Canada

The Toronto (ON, CA) Star had an interesting article last week on worries about a shortage of Information Technology workers in Canada. A sample quote is below:

The Canadian high-tech sector may be in full recovery, but a serious skills crisis looms unless more students, parents and high-school guidance counsellors shed the perception that information-technology jobs are in short supply, two industry groups are warning.

"There's a dichotomy at the moment in what kids are being told and what's needed, and that's creating a (skills) shortage and a problem that will emerge," says Bernard Courtois, president and chief executive officer of the Information Technology Association of Canada.

This seems to be an international problem. There is a perception that they is a shortage of jobs in computer and information technology among the students (and their advisors) at a time when there is actually a looming shortage of people to fill jobs. One interesting thing that the article points out is that some 40% of IT professionals working for the government in Canada will be eligible for retirement in 2008. Think about that for a minute. There are a lot of people (my age and older) who have been working in IT since the early 1970s. They're all going to start retireing soon. Who is going to replace them?

BTW come back tomorrow to read some job statistics from the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.