Canada's tech market is split. Total vacancies fell 46.9% from the 2022 peak. Software postings stay weak.

Takeaway 1: Tech vacancies fell from the 2022 peak, but some roles rose

Total vacancies fell from 1,032,215 in Q2 2022 to 548,400 in Q2 2026, down 46.9%, in the direct StatCan WDS series, 18 quarters, Q1 2022 to Q2 2026. Natural and applied sciences vacancies reached 43,400 in Q2 2026, up 5.7% from Q1 2026 and up 6.0% from a year earlier. Software developers and programmers stood at 3,545 in Q2 2026, up 925 from 2,620 a year earlier. User support technicians stood at 2,365, up 480 from 1,885. Job Bank shows 2,625 software engineer vacancies in Q2 2026, at $55.85 offered per hour. The WDS value matches Job Bank exactly. Canada has no TrueUp-style series for product manager openings. No Canada PM win can be claimed from open data. The rises are real, but they are narrow. They sit in a few technical roles, against a 46.9% fall from the peak.

Takeaway 2: Software postings stay weak, while engineering postings rise

Indeed Canada software development postings fell 8.0% year to date to Sep 30, 2026. They sit 22% below the pre-pandemic baseline, at an index of 78. The vacancy series tells the same story from the 2022 peak. Software engineers fell from 9,480 in Q2 2022 to 2,625 in Q2 2026, down 72.3%. Information systems specialists fell from 9,805 to 2,910, down 70.3%. Computer systems developers fell from 3,730 to 285, down 92.4%. Software developers fell from 7,985 to 3,545, down 55.6%, though they rose 35.3% in the last year. National unemployment rose to 6.7% in Oct 2026. Employment fell for three straight months: 41,700 in August, 68,300 in September, and 4,700 in October. Yet natural and applied sciences unemployment was only 2.8% in September. The split is the story. Software demand is weak. Technical demand is tight.

Takeaway 3: Graphic designers fell 74%. Product designers are not counted in Canada

Lenny counts about 1,900 open product design roles worldwide, down 28% in a year. Canada now has a count for graphic designers, but not for product designers. Graphic designer vacancies fell from 2,995 in Q2 2022 to 770 in Q2 2026, down 74.3%. Web designer vacancies fell from 335 to 75, but 7 of 18 quarters are suppressed, so that series is thin. NOC 52120 covers graphic designers and illustrators. It is not a product design count. Job Bank rates the software outlook as Very limited in Toronto and in Ontario, Limited in Ottawa, and Moderate in Calgary, Edmonton, and Montreal. Nova Scotia rates Good for software engineers and designers. The design fall is real. The product design gap stays open.

Takeaway 4: Everybody now needs AI, but Ontario's rule pushed Canada's number up

AI words appear in 19.0% of all Canadian Indeed postings on Sep 30, 2026. That is up from 5.7% a year earlier and 1.7% in 2019. The US sits at 7.3%, the UK at 9.9%, and Australia at 7.1%. Ontario sits at 28% in May 2026, up from 9% in Oct 2025. Ontario's Jan 2026 rule requires employers with 25 or more staff to disclose AI use in hiring. Indeed says much of the jump reflects that rule. AI demand is real, and the headline share is inflated by disclosure. Read the 19% with that caveat.

Takeaway 5: Tech talent concentrates in Toronto and in five more cities

Toronto ranks 3rd in North America for tech talent in CBRE's 2026 report. Vancouver ranks 9th, Waterloo Region 10th, Montreal 11th, Ottawa 14th, and Calgary 15th. Toronto added 75,000 tech jobs from 2022 to 2025, more than any other North American market. Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver hold 60% of Canada's AI jobs. Canada added 91,300 tech talent jobs in 2025, up 7.6%, to nearly 1.3 million. CBRE is a private report, shown as secondary context only. Concentration is real, but it is spread across six cities, not one Bay Area.

Takeaway 6: Remote stays low in Q2 2026 postings, and hybrid is the realistic option

Only 4% of Canadian technology postings in Q2 2026 were fully remote. Hybrid was 16% and fully on-site was 80%. Across all postings, on-site was 63% in Q4 2025 and 84% in Q2 2026. This is the Q2 2026 share in the Robert Half series. No longer series is shown, so this report makes no record claim. Postings are not the same as actual work. Postings show what employers advertise. The direction is clear. Employers advertise on-site first.

Takeaway 7: Growth sits outside software, in engineering, trades, and manufacturing

Lenny's takeaway 7 body text is cut off in the public PDF at page 23. Only the heading remains. The Canada analogue is clear from open data. Civil engineering postings rose 30% year over year. Industrial, electrical, and mechanical engineering postings each rose 18% year over year. Manufacturing vacancies rose 17.1% year over year. Trades vacancies rose 6.6%. Natural and applied sciences vacancies rose 6.0%. Health vacancies fell 7.8%. Software postings fell 8.0% year to date. Growth is real, but it is not in software.

Method and gaps

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