The languishing telecommunications sector is fostering the entrepreneurial spirit of jobless tech workers like never before, according to a new survey of the sector.
The survey, carried out by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation and the Ottawa Business Journal, found that, while fewer people were employed in the sector compared to six months ago, the number of companies hit a record 1,500, an increase of more than seven per cent.
At the same time, the number of people employed in the sector continued to fall from the highs of 2001. Total employment fell about five per cent from six months ago to 64,500.
OCRI president and CEO Jeffrey Dale said the numbers reflect a strong entrepreneurial spirit awoken by the mass layoffs among the region's telecom equipment makers. He said the spike in the number of new companies will help diversify the tech sector and eventually lead to higher levels of employment.
"Clearly, we've struck a chord with business leaders and investors who recognize that Ottawa is a great place to live and do business," Dale said. "If they didn't see a future for startup companies in this city, we wouldn't be seeing this kind of growth."
While the region's large multinational telecom equipment makers continue to languish, small businesses and fresh startups have begun to hire and enjoy stronger market conditions.
The market has undergone a profound shift from the days of the tech boom, Dale said. Tech veterans and recent graduates alike should be looking for the hundreds of companies wanting to hire a few people, rather than waiting for a few companies to hire hundreds.
"We know not all of these companies are going to survive," he said of the wave of startups. "But the majority of them are going to survive."
The survey was conducted as part of the semi-annual update of the OBJ's Ottawa Technology Industry Guide. The 13th edition of the guide is being distributed this week.
According to Statistics Canada, the tech sector has reached a stable bottom. By Statscan's count, the local tech workforce stands at 56,000, off by about 13,000 from a peak of almost 69,000 in March 2001.
Statscan uses a narrower definition of a tech company, excluding a number of IT services firms, consultants, hardware suppliers and Internet service providers included in the OCRI stats.
The other difference between the two sets of stats is OCRI contacts companies directly, while Statscan compiles its data using household surveys.
According to Statscan's Geoff Bowlby, the level of high-tech employment has fluctuated over the past year, with job gains often seen in the services side of the industry. But gains in one month have been offset by losses in another, keeping the number of high-tech positions steady.
Continued weakness among many of the region's larger and more established firms is evident in the number of recent layoffs.
In addition to the ongoing reductions at JDS Uniphase, Mitel Networks has cut 35 staff, March Networks 60, Mosaid Technologies 58, Alcatel Canada 60 and Solectron subsidiary Dy 4 Systems almost 40 in the past two months.
