Any sophisticated sage knows the first rule of predicting the future: make your predictions about events so far out that nobody will remember if you got it wrong. So, here I am, unwisely breaking that rule, diving into the immediate future, and telling you what’s likely to happen in IT hiring over the next 12 months.
1. Cross-Border Competition: U.S. Companies Eye Canadian Talent
With a new U.S. administration taking office in early 2025, it’s easy to foresee tighter immigration policies adding to hiring pressures in their IT sector. If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, it’s this: when U.S. companies feel the pinch of a talent shortage, they start looking north. Canadian developers are highly skilled, geographically convenient, and now, thanks to a weakening Canadian dollar, even more attractive to American employers.
We’ve seen this before. Remember the talent poaching frenzy a few years ago? U.S. companies swooped in with compensation packages that were hard to resist, driving up salaries and making retention a constant battle. Canadian businesses were left scrambling to hold onto their teams.
Interestingly, the same outcome could occur if the U.S. takes the opposite approach—loosening visa rules and actively encouraging IT professionals to relocate or work remotely. Either way, Canadian talent is firmly in their sights.
This time, it could happen even faster. The Canadian dollar has already dropped significantly, and some predict an exchange rate of 1.5 CAD to USD later this year. For American companies, that makes local Canadian talent a bargain. For Canadian companies, it makes retaining top talent much harder.
If you haven’t started thinking about how to defend your best players from U.S. offers, now is the time. Waiting until competitors come knocking could mean losing your MVPs when you need them most.
2. The Hiring Rebound: Get Ready for the Competition
After 18 months of slower hiring, many companies have grown a little too comfortable with a calm IT talent market. But remember how wild things got in 2021? That’s what could be on the horizon as we head into 2025. A rebound in hiring demand seems likely, and with it comes the familiar one-two punch of more competition and rising rates.
If you’re leading a team, now is the time to ask yourself a tough question: Are my top people happy, or are they quietly polishing their LinkedIn profiles? You don’t want to wait until they get that first call from a competitor offering better pay.
2025 might just be the year to take pre-emptive action. Offering a thoughtful rate increase as a gesture of goodwill could cost less in the long run than getting into a bidding war to keep your MVPs. Plus, it shows your team that you value them—before someone else does.
3. Return-to-Office Policies: Don’t Be That Company
If the first two predictions come true—a hiring rebound and U.S. competition—then companies mandating strict return-to-office (RTO) policies could feel the pain first. Right now, in a slower market, employees might not have much choice but to play along. But when opportunities start knocking, those rigid policies will look like a fast track to losing top talent.
A recent Gartner survey showed that a third of executives and a fifth of employees would rather quit than be forced back to the office full-time. And for IT professionals, flexibility isn’t just a perk; it’s a dealbreaker.
Flexibility will be your friend in 2025. Building trust and creating policies that meet employees halfway could be the difference between retaining your top performers and watching them walk out the door—straight into your competitor’s open arms.
4. The Rising Appeal of LatAm Nearshoring
With cross-border competition intensifying, a hiring rebound on the horizon, and Canadian talent increasingly targeted by U.S. companies, hiring managers may need to look beyond their traditional pools. That’s where nearshoring to Latin America (LatAm) comes into play as a strategic solution for 2025.
LatAm has already established itself as a hub for highly skilled IT professionals, offering a compelling blend of talent, affordability, and time zone alignment with North America. As Canadian and U.S. companies face rising local salaries and stiffer competition, the ability to tap into LatAm’s robust talent pool becomes even more attractive.
What makes LatAm stand out is its adaptability. With many professionals fluent in English and experienced in cloud technologies, software development, and integrations, LatAm developers are well-equipped to meet the demands of modern IT projects. For companies concerned about the retention challenges highlighted in trends one and two, nearshoring also offers scalability and cost-effective solutions to fill gaps without overextending budgets.
Moreover, as remote work continues to reshape how we hire and collaborate (trend three), LatAm nearshoring fits seamlessly into hybrid and distributed workforce models. The flexibility to onboard talent quickly, scale for project needs, and maintain alignment with your core team makes LatAm an invaluable resource for companies navigating the complexities of 2025’s IT landscape.
If the pressure of hiring locally is mounting—or if defending your top players is stretching your resources—LatAm nearshoring could provide the relief valve your team needs to thrive in the year ahead.
Wrapping It Up
So, there you have it: four trends that could define IT hiring in 2025. The cross-border competition will intensify, the hiring rebound will bring back the heat, rigid return-to-office policies might sink some ships, and companies will ramp up their LatAm nearshoring efforts.
With a little preparation, you can navigate these challenges, retain your top talent, augment your team with hard-to-find skills from LatAm, and position your business for success. And if you need a hand figuring it all out, you know where to find our DevEngine team.