Midwest, Denver make big gains in tech jobs
Canada also moves up in CBRE’s annual survey
SAN FRANCISCO – Denver and some smaller cities in the Midwest are starting to show their tech chops.
While the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle dominate in availability of these high-paying jobs and the ability to attract tech workers, cities in the Midwest, Southern California and Canada are also becoming soughtafter tech hubs, according to an annual analysis released by commercial real estate firm CBRE.
It ranked the best cities for tech talent, based on metrics such as rental costs for employees and companies, as well as available tech talent and outlook for jobs.
The top 10 cities remained largely the same as last year’s report, led by the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Washington, Toronto and New York City.
Denver is the one newcomer, replacing Dallas/Fort Worth.
Smaller markets (with fewer than
50,000 tech workers) in the Midwest – where there has been a major effort to attract more tech startups in recent years – saw increases in the number of tech-talent jobs.
These jobs include software developers and programmers; computer support, database and systems jobs; technology and engineering-related jobs; and computer and information system managers.
Madison, Wisconsin, added 6,720 tech-talent jobs in the last five years, a
39.5 percent increase, to 23,740. Columbus, Ohio, and Pittsburgh both added more than 6,700 tech-talent jobs in the last five years. The latter two cities are close to surpassing
50,000 tech workers and becoming major markets for tech.
In Canada, where the cost of living is generally lower, Toronto added more than 80,000 tech-talent jobs in the last five years, a more than 50 percent increase, bringing its total to 212,500 total tech jobs. That’s almost twothirds the size of the Bay Area’s tech-talent labor pool.
In Ottawa, Ontario, tech-talent jobs are up about 16 percent.
Some smaller markets in the Midwest and Canada are surging thanks to more affordable costs of living and cheaper wages, says Colin Yasukochi, director of research and analysis at CBRE. Orange County, California, home to UC Irvine, is also growing quickly.
Major tech companies currently employ 37 percent of the tech labor force. The remaining 63 percent of jobs are in other industries such as finance, insurance, government, transportation and education, among others.
Technology jobs remain a huge draw, both for salary and availability. In the U.S., these account for 3.5 percent of total workers. But the tech labor force has increased 16 percent in the last five years, a pace more than three times the national job growth average.
The amount of tech talent in the Bay Area and Seattle is still growing – thanks to the amount of quality universities and tech infrastructure in those cities. But they’re are also among the most expensive places to operate.