(Montreal) After Quebec City, it is the turn of CGI’s Montreal offices to experience layoffs. The IT consulting firm has laid off 55 people as the tech job market cools.
CGI laid off 55 employees working at its Montreal offices in November, according to a notice sent to the Ministry of Employment and Social Solidarity. The company laid off 19 employees at its Quebec offices in October.
The company launched a cost optimization program in September, notably by adapting the size of its real estate portfolio and improving its operational efficiency. “This program will affect less than 1% of all employees and will be distributed across all regions where we operate around the world,” said a company spokesperson in an email.
The decision comes at a time when CGI is seeing its growth decelerate. In constant currency, its sales rose 2.2% in the quarter ended September. In comparison, this pace was 6.3% in the previous quarter.
As of the end of September, CGI’s global workforce remained relatively stable at 91,500 employees. “This could mean that there is a slowdown in activities,” said analyst Daniel Chan of TD Securities when the most recent quarterly results were published in November.
Analyst Stephanie Price of CIBC World Markets remains optimistic for the company, which maintains a “solid” order book, she emphasizes. A return to more vigorous growth could, however, take a little longer.
“We anticipate that CGI will go through a few quarters of slower growth, while delegated IT services take longer to generate revenue and demand for consulting is more modest in this economic environment . »
Less appetite for recruitment
CGI had experienced recruiting challenges during the pandemic when demand for tech workers was at a peak.
In a sign of the slowing tech job market, Chairman and CEO George D. Schindler reported in November that employees were more loyal. “Our turnover rate is lower than the industry. It is even lower than the threshold before the pandemic. »
Compared to last year, CGI job offers fell by 68% in Canada for the months of July, August and September, according to a review by the firm RBC Capital Markets. The number of positions posted was 52% below the pre-pandemic level.
The job market in the technology sector has seen a slowdown this year. In February, Google Canada announced the elimination of around twenty positions at its Montreal office. In January, cloud commerce specialist Lightspeed announced the elimination of 300 positions to reduce its operating expenses by 10%.
At the beginning of October, travel app Hopper laid off nearly 250 employees, or 30% of its workforce. The announcement, however, had “little impact” at the Montreal head office, the company said.