Stable Salaries and Lower Turnover Signal a Shift in Canada’s Technology Sector

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Postmedia has not reviewed the content. by Business Wire Stable Salaries and Lower Turnover Signal a Shift in Canada's Technology SectorAuthor of the article:THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountTAP Network’s 2026 Tech Salary and Total Rewards Report finds salary growth holding at 3.5% as employee turnover declines, AI skills become harder to recruit for and hybrid work becomes an established operating model.VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Canada’s technology talent market is entering a more selective phase, with salaries continuing to grow at a measured pace, employee turnover continuing to decline, and organizations becoming more targeted about the skills and capabilities they need.Five 2026 Tech Compensation and Workforce TrendsGet the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againCanadian tech salary increases remain at 3.5%AI skills jump from 17% to 25% among hardest-to-recruit skillsTech turnover falls from 13% to 7% in three years71% of tech organizations remain hybridCanadian tech employers are shifting from job-based thinking toward capability-based workforce planningThe 2026 TAP Network Tech Salary and Total Rewards Report, based on data from more than 190 Canadian technology companies and 26,700 employees across 351 jobs, shows median salary increases of 3.5% in 2026, consistent with the previous two-year reporting cycle. However, base salary growth tells only part of the story. Turnover has fallen to approximately 7%, down from 13% three years ago, while AI has risen from 17% to 25% among the skills employers identify as the hardest to recruit.“The headline isn’t really that salaries moved 3.5%. The more interesting story is what is happening underneath that number,” said Sachi Kittur, CEO, TAP Network. “Employees are moving less, AI capabilities are becoming harder to find, and organizations are being much more deliberate about where they invest in talent. For People and Culture leaders, this changes the conversation. It is no longer simply about what a job is worth today. We need to understand what work and capabilities will create value next, and whether our workforce is ready for that shift.”Salary growth remains measuredThe 2026 data points to a compensation environment characterized by measured growth rather than acceleration.Median salary increases of 3.5% point to continued discipline in the compensation market, with organizations forecasting a similar 3.4% median increase for 2027.At the industry level, High Tech continues to lead at 3.6%, followed by Retail & Wholesale at 3.4%.The pattern points to measured and conservative market growth with organizations balancing overall compensation discipline and targeted investment in capabilities that are increasingly important to business performance.AI skills continue to be hard to findOne of the clearest shifts in this year’s data is the continuing difficulty organizations report in recruiting AI capabilities. Artificial intelligence rose from 17% to 25% among skills identified as hardest to recruit, now ranking third behind sales at 38% and leadership at 44%. “We are moving very quickly from a conversation about AI tools to a much bigger conversation about workforce capability,” said Kittur. “The organizations that get this right will need to understand where human expertise becomes more valuable, where new capabilities need to be built, and where work itself needs to be redesigned.”The question for employers is becoming less about which jobs AI will replace and more about which capabilities will create value in an AI-enabled workforce.Outside of AI-specific roles, Implementation Consultant, Hardware R&D Engineering Director, and Product/Brand Marketing Director have the most headcount growth, reflecting the changing mix of skills organizations need as technology, customer expectations and business models evolve.Lower turnover changes the retention conversationAnother notable finding is the continued decline in turnover across the Canadian technology sector.compared with 13% three years ago.For employers, lower turnover can provide welcome stability. However, it also raises a more complicated question: are employees staying because they are engaged and committed or because there are fewer external opportunities for growth and movement? As employees navigate a more cautious labour market, organizations may be facing a different retention challenge. People and Culture leaders are increasingly thinking about how to maintain engagement, career growth, internal mobility and performance among top performing employees who may become retention risks when market conditions change.Hybrid work is an operating model, not a temporary responseThe hybrid workplace has also continued to evolve.In the 2026 survey, 71% of participating organizations reported a hybrid model, compared with 26%fully remote and 2.6% fully onsite. Among hybrid organizations, three days onsite per week is most common, compared with two days onsite in 2025.As organizations move beyond the initial debate over remote versus in-office work, the focus is increasingly shifting toward how work gets done.For People and Culture leaders, that means asking more practical questions: Which work benefits from being together? When does in-person collaboration create value? How should teams collaborate across locations? And how can organizations make time together purposeful?The data suggests that hybrid work is no longer simply a workplace policy question. It is increasingly part of broader workforce design, collaboration and organizational effectiveness.From compensation benchmarking to workforce intelligenceTaken together, the findings point to a Canadian technology workforce that is becoming more stable while the skills and capabilities organizations require continue to change.This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.For People and Culture leaders, the implications extend beyond annual compensation benchmarking. Understanding what organizations pay remains critical, but increasingly those decisions need to be connected to where skills are emerging, how work is changing and which capabilities organizations will need next.The 2026 TAP Network Tech Salary & Total Rewards Report provides the data to help leaders benchmark their organizations and a starting point for the broader workforce decisions ahead.About TAP Network’s Tech Sector Salary and Total Rewards ReportTAP Network partners with Marsh (formerly Mercer) to produce an annual salary and total rewards survey focused on the Canadian tech sector, reporting on local and national salaries, total compensation, detailed policy data, and more. Survey participants include startups, scale ups and large multinationals representing a broad cross section of subsectors such as software products, AI, clean tech, hardware design and manufacturing, VFX, animation, video game and interactive digital media and more. Survey submissions were collected in Spring 2026 and results were published in September 2026.Learn more about TAP Network’s Salary and Total Rewards Survey here.View source version on businesswire.com: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)Tech+People (TAP) NetworkNotice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.