Chapter 9
Which are the up-and-coming markets for tech talent?
Scoring Tech Talent 2023
5 Minute Read
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The rising importance of technology in business and society has caused a global expansion of tech talent labor pools and implementation of more distributed labor strategies by tech talent employers seeking innovation potential and efficiency.
Latin America’s Top 10 Markets
Latin America has long been an important source of tech talent in North America, initially focused on manufacturing and business services. During the most recent economic growth cycle, Latin America’s tech talent has increasingly focused on software development and innovation. This has attracted many multinational technology companies to the region, as well as further developed Latin America’s own technology industry.
During the most recent economic growth cycle, Latin America’s tech talent has increasingly focused on software development and innovation.
Over the past five years, Latin America’s tech talent workforce has boomed. While costs have risen with rapid growth, average wages in Latin America remain about 38% of those in the U.S. The three largest Latin American tech talent markets were São Paulo, Mexico City and Santiago, while the fastest growing was San Jose, Costa Rica.
Real estate costs are also relatively low, making Latin America an even more attractive option for tech talent employers.
Figure 35: Latin America's Top 10 Markets
1 Jobs related to the development, operation, monitoring and support of the digitized information transmission processes.
2 Based on 2022 annual average exchange rates.
3 Submarkets where tech firms are predominantly located.
4 Submarkets where tech employees predominantly live.
North America’s Next 25
Fostering talent development in lesser-known and underdeveloped U.S. and Canadian markets could offer additional talent pools to employers seeking to expand their geographical reach and uncover opportunities. They have been separately ranked from the top 50 markets according to their relative strength. In the U.S., most of them are in the Midwest and South.
These 25 smaller markets have strong growth potential and are concentrated in the U.S. Midwest and South. They have been separately ranked from the top 50 markets according to their relative strength.
Figure 36: North America's Next 25 Markets
*data in US$
Note: Markets were separately ranked according to their relative strength based on eight of the 13 metrics used for the top 50.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Metro), Statistics Canada (Metro), April 2023.
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