It’s no surprise that the largest tech market in the U.S. and Canada is the San Francisco Bay area. However, the competition for talent is getting tougher as more highly skilled tech workers—especially millennials—are flocking to cities where the cost of living is lower and tech jobs are plentiful, according to CBRE Group, Inc.’s annual Research report, “Scoring Tech Talent,” which ranks 50 U.S. and Canadian markets according to their ability to attract and grow tech talent.
In their quest for highly skilled talent and for lower cost of doing business, both new and expanding companies are establishing footprints in these more affordable markets leading to a rise in demand for office space and a decrease in office vacancy. “Tech talent markets share several distinct characteristics, including high concentrations of college-educated workers, major universities producing tech graduates and large millennial populations,” said Colin Yasukochi, who authored the report on behalf of CBRE Research.
Top 10 tech talent markets
The top 10-ranked cities on the Tech Talent Scorecard were all large markets, each with a tech labor pool of more than 50,000.
1 | San Francisco Bay Area
2 | Washington, D.C.
3 | Seattle
4 | New York
5 | Austin
6 | Dallas/Ft. Worth
7 | Boston
8 | Raleigh-Durham
9 | Atlanta
10 | Baltimore
Top tech growth ‘momentum markets’
Small markets took dominant positions on the list of top “momentum markets,” which ranks cities based on tech talent growth. This chart lists the ten fastest growing tech towns. The percentage column represents the growth rates between 2010 and 2015.
[table “” not found /]Tech Talent Scorecard criteria
Rankings for the Tech Talent Scorecard are based on 13 unique metrics that include these:
- Tech talent supply
- Growth
- Concentration
- Cost of living
- Completed tech degrees
- Industry outlook for job growth
- Market outlook for office growth
- Apartment rent cost growth
via: CBRE Group
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