Toronto is No. 4 in CBRE's new North American Tech Talent ranking. Ottawa jumps 5 spots to No. 14 and Vancouver holds at No. 12. Calgary makes its debut and Waterloo Region tops 'Next 25' list
Toronto was a North American leader in tech employment growth leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to fortify the city’s status as one of the world’s leading tech centres, according to CBRE’s annual ranking of Top 50 Tech Talent markets. Toronto added 66,900 tech jobs over the past five years, the second-most of any North American city in the past five years, bested only by the San Francisco Bay Area. Vancouver retained its No. 12 spot in the Tech Talent ranking, while Ottawa rose a notable five positions to No. 14, surging ahead of Montreal, which dropped to No. 16. Ottawa boasts the highest tech talent concentration (tech talent as a percentage of total industry occupations) of any North American city in the Top 50. Meanwhile, Calgary made its first-ever appearance in this year’s Tech Talent list, debuting at No. 34, providing a glimmer of hope for a more diversified economic future in Canada’s oil patch. Other energy markets in the report include Denver (7), Dallas (13), Houston (36) and San Antonio (47). “Online demand and the tech sector in general have gone into overdrive since the emergence of COVID-19. This report points to the cities likely to benefit most from this activity and Toronto continues to be near the front of a very competitive pack,” said CBRE Canada Vice Chairman Paul Morassutti. “With Canada making headway in the effort to contain COVID-19 and U.S. visa changes likely to hurt tech talent attraction south of the border, the tech-mentum of Canadian cities is likely sustainable.”
The top five markets in the Tech Talent ranking for 2020 are the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, D.C. – which leapfrogged to No. 2 on the momentum of several years of growth after federal budget sequestration in 2013 – Seattle, Toronto and New York.
| 2020 Rank | Market | Score | Change |
| 1 | SF Bay Area | 82.56 | NC |
| 2 | Washington, D.C. | 67.39 | +2 |
| 3 | Seattle | 66.36 | -1 |
| 4 | Toronto | 64.34 | -1 |
| 5 | New York | 64.01 | NC |
| 6 | Austin | 60.30 | NC |
| 7 | Denver | 59.89 | +1 |
| 8 | Boston | 59.61 | -1 |
| 9 | Atlanta | 58.78 | NC |
| 10 | Raleigh-Durham, N.C. | 56.29 | NC |
CBRE defines tech talent as 20 tech-focused occupations found in all industry sectors, including software developers, programmers, and computer and information system managers. CBRE ranks the top 50 markets in its annual Tech Talent Scorecard by assessing 13 metrics on a weighted basis, including tech-talent supply, concentration, cost, completed tech degrees and real estate costs. New this year is CBRE’s list of the top 10 tech-talent markets in Latin America, led by Sao Paolo, Brazil; Mexico City; and Santiago, Chile.
CBRE also included a ranking of ‘Next 25’ up-and-coming markets, and Waterloo Region tops the list, with Quebec City at No. 6, Edmonton No. 9 and Halifax No. 12. These smaller markets are ranked by a narrower set of eight criteria for tech employment, growth, wages and education.
| 2020 ‘Next 25’ Rank | Market |
| 1 | Waterloo Region, ON |
| 2 | Huntsville, AL |
| 3 | Omaha, NE |
| 4 | Colorado Springs, CO |
| 5 | Dayton, OH |
| 6 | Quebec City, QC |
| 7 | Providence, RI |
| 8 | Albany, NY |
| 9 | Edmonton, AB |
| 10 | Louisville, KY |
“Tech-talent workers are the ones that have made it possible for us to remain productive during our crash course this year in remote working,” said Lexi Russell, CBRE Director of Research & Analysis and co-author of Scoring Tech Talent. “This might entice more companies to distribute their workforce more broadly by branching into tech-talent markets outside the top 50, or even outside the top 75.”
CBRE analyzed and compared real estate costs and wages across markets to identify the most affordable, the most expensive and the best bargains for cost vs. labour quality. The least expensive in the top 50 tech-talent markets for a 500-person tech company leasing 75,000 sq. ft. was Montreal, at C$40.1 million, followed by Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. The most expensive market is the San Francisco Bay Area, at C$82.3 million a year.
“We expect that most tech-talent hubs and professions will thrive after the pandemic subsides, and many that facilitate remote work, ecommerce, social media and streaming services may have even greater growth opportunities accelerated by the COVID-19 disruption,” said Colin Yasukochi, Executive Director of CBRE’s Tech Insights Center. “Markets that have strong innovation infrastructure – leading universities and high concentrations of tech jobs – will lead the next growth cycle.”
View the full report here. To view individual market statistics and ranking, including rankings on the Scorecard, access CBRE's Tech Talent Analyzer.
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