Key Takeaways

This year’s top-ranked tech talent markets are the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Toronto, Washington, D.C. and New York Metro. Markets that climbed the most in the rankings are Dallas/Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, South Florida and Milwaukee.

Toronto, Vancouver and Seattle created substantially more jobs than tech degree graduates, while New York Metro, Boston and Washington, D.C. produced more graduates than jobs. Tech talent job creation was compared with the number of tech degree graduates in each market to determine top job and education markets.

Tech talent across all industries was predominantly White, Asian and male relative to total employment and office-using employment. Hispanics, Blacks and females were underrepresented in both tech talent occupations and the tech industry. These underrepresented groups were also concentrated in the lower-wage brackets. Relative to an office-using employment benchmark, Tampa and Pittsburgh were the most diverse.

Underrepresented race/ethnic groups accounted for 24% of recent tech degree graduates and females accounted for 26% versus 30% and 60%, respectively, for all graduates.

The total annual labor and real estate cost for the typical 500-person tech company occupying 75,000 sq. ft. of office space ranged from $32 million in Quebec City to $69 million in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Fostering talent development in lesser-known and underdeveloped markets could offer additional talent pools to employers seeking to expand their geographical reach, uncover opportunities and increase cost efficiency. These markets are spread across Canada, Latin America and the U.S. Midwest and South.