User support technicians in Centre-du-Québec

The employment outlook will be Moderate for user support technicians (NOC 22221) in the Centre-du-Québec region for the 2025-2027 period.

The following factors contributed to this outlook:

• Employment growth will lead to a few new positions.
• A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements.
• There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

Employment in this profession is primarily driven by the demand for IT services.

Sectors such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, cryptography, mobile application development, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation have had strong growth in recent years. The development of these sectors will directly affect the job oulook for these technicians.

After a period of strong growth, the IT sector is now going through a reorganization phase. However, many companies have already upgraded their IT infrastructure, specifically to meet telework needs, which will sustain technical support requirements.

However, AI is changing the sector. The integration of AI is opening up new job opportunities, specifically to support users in adopting these technologies. However, AI can also carry out some technical and repetitive tasks, such as solving simple problems, which could reduce the need for human intervention. The increased implementation of chatbots illustrates this trend, which should continue or even gain momentum in the coming years. This could curb overall job growth in this occupation.

Here are some key facts about user support technicians in the Centre-du-Québec region:

• Approximately 230 people worked in this occupation in May 2021.
• User support technicians mainly work in the following sectors:
  • Educational services (NAICS 61): 23%
  • Information, cultural, arts, entertainment and recreation services (NAICS 51, 71): 18%
  • Professional, scientific and technical services (NAICS 54): 12%
  • Local, municipal, regional, aboriginal and other public administration (NAICS 913-919): 10%
  • Paper manufacturing (NAICS 322): 9%