The VFX and animation industry is a fast-growing industry across Canada, with nearly 16% annual growth and nearly 15,000 employees. Canada grows faster than the rest of the world, 6% to 7%, and there is no reason why growth should slow down. VFX and animation employees are highly paid, $63,000 on average. They are rather young, 29 years old on average, and highly skilled and educated. The industry exports more than 90% of its production, and contributes directly to an equivalent increase of Canadian GDP of more than $850 million. Technicolor's ambition is to grow its VFX and animation by 25% to 2,000 employees by the end of 2017.
The industry is facing a huge shortage of both Canadian and permanent resident labour. The problem is both volume and education level. On average, we only find 50% of our labour needs—ranging from 55% for juniors, down to only 33% for the most experienced employees, who are essential to delivering our projects—despite all the initiatives we've launched, and two internal training academies in Vancouver and Montreal, each with 120 seats per year, and strong relationships and support from universities and colleges.
Ironically, the VFX and animation industry in Canada is a victim of its own success. Strong growth will maintain the skills shortage for many years despite efforts made to increase the number of students and to increase the education level. One positive result is that there is no unemployment in this sector, provided that candidates have the required skill level.