A trio of Canadian cities dominated the top five spots in CBRE’s Tech-30 2022 report.
Vancouver and Toronto recorded faster high-tech software and services job growth in 2020 and 2021 than any other cities in North America, according to the report.
In 2020 and 2021, Vancouver and Toronto added more than 28,000 and over 60,000 tech jobs, respectively.
During this period, Vancouver and Toronto added more than 28,000 and over 60,000 high-tech jobs, respectively. Vancouver’s pool of high-tech jobs increased by more than 44 percent, while Toronto’s grew by over 37 percent, outpacing Austin, Texas and Seattle.
Montréal followed closely behind at fifth, as its tech talent pool grew nearly 16 percent with the addition of almost 14,000 tech jobs over the past two years.
Though no other Canadian cities cracked the top 30, CBRE ranked Waterloo, Ottawa, and Calgary at number one, two, and three among the next 10 tech talent markets to watch, featuring the trio on this list for the second consecutive year.
“The Tech-30 report confirms that Canadian cities continue to produce and attract some of the best and brightest tech workers in the world,” said CBRE Canada vice chairman Paul Morassutti. “While there is a lot of uncertainty swirling around, we can take some comfort knowing that our economy is underpinned by a robust and innovative tech workforce.”
CBRE’s Tech-30 report explores the tech industry’s impact on office space and ranks the 30 leading tech markets in Canada and the United States, as well as 10 up-and-coming tech markets.
This new data contrasts slightly with CBRE’s 2021 report on the two prior years, which identified Toronto as having experienced the fastest high-tech job growth, and Vancouver the third most. Since 2021, Montréal has risen slightly from sixth.
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CBRE has found that tech job growth has remained strong in the wake of COVID-19. Overall, the report found that while high-tech employment “declined minimally in the early months of the pandemic, [it] has grown steadily since May 2020 to surpass pre-pandemic highs.”
Of the 30 markets listed in CBRE’s latest report, 13 cities saw faster high-tech job growth in the past two years than the prior two years. Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver saw the biggest jump on this front.
In terms of total employment, CBRE reports that Vancouver currently plays home to over 92,000 high-tech workers, Toronto employs almost 224,000, and Montréal houses more than 100,000.
Among smaller Canadian cities identified as markets to watch, Ottawa currently has 39,000 high-tech workers, and Calgary hosts over 33,000, while Waterloo’s tech workforce numbers nearly 20,000 people, according to CBRE.
Notably, Toronto and Vancouver were also North America’s fastest-growing tech talent pools over the past five years, per CBRE’s 2022 Scoring Tech Talent report, which the firm released this summer.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Alejandro Luengo.