Key Takeaways

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Score

This year’s top-ranked tech talent markets are the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New York Metro, Washington, D.C. and Toronto.

Markets that improved the most in the rankings are Calgary, the Waterloo Region of Canada and St. Louis.

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Jobs vs. Education

Three Canadian markets (Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal) created substantially more jobs than tech degree graduates, while New York Metro, Washington, D.C. and Chicago 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.

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Diversity

Tech talent across all industries was predominantly White, Asian and male relative to total employment and non-tech 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. The most and least diverse markets for tech talent were determined by using non-tech office-using employment as a diversity benchmark.

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Cost

The total annual labor and real estate cost for the typical 500-person tech company occupying 60,000 sq. ft. of office space ranged from $33 million in Quebec City to $79 million in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Since tech industry wages are 16% higher than the U.S. average, tech companies can expect higher annual costs.

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Opportunity Markets

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.