Job prospects Technical Support Specialist – Information Technology (IT) in Nova Scotia

Explore current and future job prospects for people working as a "technical support specialist – information technology (IT)" in Nova Scotia or across Canada.

Job opportunities in Nova Scotia

These outlooks were updated on December 11, 2024.

Prospects over the next 3 years

The employment outlook will be moderate for User support technicians (NOC 22221) in Nova Scotia for the 2024-2026 period.

The following factors contributed to this outlook:

• Employment growth will lead to a moderate number of new positions.
• Not many positions will become available due to retirements.
• There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

There has been a high volume of job ads for this occupation in recent years.  The Halifax area in particular has an active information technology sector where support to clients is required, but opportunities are scattered around the province. There has also been a large increase in remote hiring, so jobseekers may benefit from including remote opportunities in their job search. A large portion of user support technicians work in call centres and with IT firms, but many are also employed in education, government, manufacturing, and telecommunications. Those with some experience in the Information Technology field will have better success finding work.

Here are some key facts about User support technicians in Nova Scotia:

• Approximately 2,950 people work in this occupation.
• User support technicians mainly work in the following sectors:
  • Computer systems design services (NAICS 5415): 28%
  • Business support services (NAICS 5614): 18%
• The distribution of full-time and part-time workers in this occupation is:
  • Full-time workers: 92% compared to 82% for all occupations
  • Part-time workers: 8% compared to 18% for all occupations
• 76% of user support technicians work all year, while 24% work only part of the year, compared to 62% and 38% respectively among all occupations. Those who worked only part of the year did so for an average of 46 weeks compared to 42 weeks for all occupations.
• Less than 5% of user support technicians are self-employed compared to an average of 11% for all occupations.
• The gender distribution of people in this occupation is:
  • Men: 71% compared to 51% for all occupations
  • Women: 28% compared to 49% for all occupations
• The educational attainment of workers in this occupation is:
  • no high school diploma: less than 5% compared to 10% for all occupations
  • high school diploma or equivalent: 20% compared to 27% for all occupations
  • apprenticeship or trades certificate or diploma: 6% compared to 12% for all occupations
  • college certificate or diploma or university certificate below bachelor's: 40% compared to 22% for all occupations
  • bachelor's degree: 23% compared to 20% for all occupations
  • university certificate, degree or diploma above bachelor level: 10% compared to 10% for all occupations

Breakdown by region

Explore job prospects in Nova Scotia by economic region.

Source Labour Market Information | Prospects Methodology

Job prospects elsewhere in Canada

Explore current and future job prospects for people working as a "technical support specialist – information technology (IT)" User support technicians (NOC 22221) or across Canada.

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