Canada Gains Prominent Spot in List of Top Tech-Worker Markets
St. Louis and Madison also move up, according to CBRE, as top five markets the same as a year ago.
Canadian markets surged in CBRE’s latest list of top tech markets, which ranks cities based on their depth, vitality, and attractiveness to companies seeking tech talent and to tech workers seeking employment.
Markets that moved up the most were Calgary, which moved up seven spots to 21st, the Waterloo Region of Canada (+6 to 18th), St. Louis (+6 to 32nd), Madison (+5 to 25th) and Quebec City (+4 to 35th) were the markets showing the greatest growth in tech jobs, according to a new report, “Scoring Tech Talent, 2023,” by CBRE.
Otherwise, the top five markets are identical to a year ago, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New York Metro, Washington, D.C., and Toronto. New York moved up to No. 3 and Toronto moved down to No. 5.
Falling the most were Columbus (-6 spots to 37th), Minneapolis/St. Paul (-5 to 26th) and, sliding four spots, were Pittsburgh (30th), Edmonton (39th), and Cleveland (46th).
The scorecard uses 13 metrics to measure each market’s depth, each weighted by its relative importance to job creation and innovation.
“Labor costs for tech talent are weighted more heavily than office rents because companies allocate more capital to labor than to real estate,” the report said.
“While large markets generally have a deeper pool of talent, small markets typically offer business and cost-of-living savings.”
Vancouver saw the highest growth rate (69%) between 2017 and 2022 and Calgary increased by 61%.
Tech talent concentration is an important indicator, the report said, as it can be an indication of future growth.
Tech talent comprises 13.3% of total employment in Ottawa and 11.6% in the San Francisco Bay Area—the highest concentrations and more than double the 50-market average of 5.6%.
Canada’s Waterloo Region at 10.1% of total employment and Toronto and Seattle at 9.5% round out the top five most concentrated tech markets.
Tech workers tend to work for tech companies. However, some markets had high concentrations of tech talent in non-tech industries, including Ottawa (42%) and Sacramento (30%) in government, Jacksonville (30%), Charlotte (28%), and Hartford (28%) in finance, insurance, and real estate.
The San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle are home to the highest average tech talent wages and Indianapolis, South Florida and Cincinnati have the lowest.
More specifically, based on the tech worker role, 50% of all software engineers work within the tech industry in the U.S. with the highest concentrations among those employed in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Austin, Portland, and Madison.