OTTAWA, ON, February 3, 2010 – OCRI’s annual Knowledge-based Industry Survey released today indicates that as of December 31, 2009, the number of companies in Ottawa’s knowledge-based sectors has increased by nearly half of one per cent while the number of employees has decreased by 1.3 per cent.
OCRI collects and verifies information provided by each company to provide the most complete picture of Ottawa’s technology industry across 13 unique industry sectors. The most current data indicates a slight increase of 0.4 per cent in the total number of companies to 1,857 up from 1,850 last year. 222 new companies were added to the database while 215 companies were removed as a result of merger, acquisition or cessation of business. The number of employees has decreased from 79,132 to 78,067 or -1.3 per cent.
“We certainly expected 2009 to be challenging so we are not surprised by the decrease in employment but we also know that the best time to start a new business venture is during tough economic times. With 222 companies added to the database and a notable increase in employment for small and medium sized businesses we see that the support programs and tools available to new companies and entrepreneurs here in Ottawa are having a positive impact,” says Claude Haw, President and CEO, OCRI. “The entire city has rallied to provide support to help our companies become successful and there are examples of great collaboration all around us. Of course, we must continue to create an environment that is attractive to investors and actively leverages the various funding programs available for small and medium sized companies in order to fuel innovation and propel our economy forward.”
As anticipated, for the third year in a row, the cleantech sector demonstrated the greatest growth and experienced an increase in the number of employees with several companies growing by more than 50 employees. Cleantech continues its rapid expansion with the largest increase in the number of companies by sector, up from 103 companies to 114, an increase of 10.7 per cent. The number of employees in this sector gained an impressive 25.2 per cent, up from 2,050 to 2,567.
Now a specific area of focus for the Ontario Technology Corridor partnership, the digital media sector has been gaining traction in our region. In October, Ottawa hosted the International Animation Festival, proving to many who weren’t already aware that Ottawa is a hotbed for digital media creativity. The cluster features 63 companies that have identified digital media as their primary industry and more than 120 others see digital media as their secondary industry. As a result, a formal digital media cluster, GENERATOR, was launched in December.
Bell Canada is the region’s largest knowledge-based industry employer with 3,781 employees followed closely by IBM with 3,500 employees and Nortel currently at 3,000 employees. Nortel’s employment number is subject to change as pending acquisitions are completed.
The annual Ottawa Technology Magazine, produced by the Ottawa Business Journal in partnership with OCRI, will be available on Monday February 15th, 2010.
Visit http://www.ocri.ca/economicstatistics/htsurvey.asp for graphs of the above data.
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About OCRI:
Leading the way for Ottawa, OCRI is the city’s economic development agency. OCRI is the rallying point to bring business, education, research and talent together to create the winning economic conditions that allow Ottawa’s knowledge-based companies to thrive locally and compete globally. At OCRI we promote sustainable economic development to maintain our high quality of life. For more information on OCRI visit our website at www.ocri.ca and for more information on the Ottawa Region please visit www.ottawaregion.com. In 2010, Ottawa was named one of the world’s top seven intelligent communities by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF).
For more information contact:
Kim Cunningham
Manager, External Communications, OCRI
Office: (613) 828-6274 ext. 256
Cell: (613) 851-0768
Email: kcunningham@ocri.ca
BACKGROUNDER:
➢ The live, Ottawa technology database can be viewed at www.ottawaregion.com
➢ Each year, OCRI conducts the survey of local Ottawa knowledge-based sector businesses primarily to develop an online database of information about companies, products and service providers.
➢ The survey data, reported directly from the companies, provides information to help identify trends within the region and calculate the total number of companies and employees.
➢ Over 88 per cent of the companies operating in knowledge-based industries located in the Ottawa region responded to the survey in 2009.
➢ Knowledge-based industries are defined as those which are intensive in their inputs of technology and human capital. Locally, this has been defined as those that classify as primarily operating within the following sectors tracked by OCRI: cleantech, contact centre/customer centre, convergent medical devices, defence and security, eBusiness, health and drug discovery, knowledge-based support services, photonics, semiconductor, software, telecommunications, wireless and digital media.
➢ It should be noted that industry definitions and classifications vary widely by country and therefore do not allow for comparative, quantitative evaluation.
➢ OCRI’s Knowledge-based Industry Survey collects and verifies information provided by each company to provide the most complete picture of Ottawa’s technology industry across 13 unique industry sectors.
