Canadian cities had the highest tech job growth rates in North America, according to CBRE's annual "Scoring Tech Talent" report.
Canada's tech talent workforce grew 15.7%, or more than 150,000 jobs, from 2020 to 2022, outpacing the U.S. growth rate of 11.4%, or more than 610,000 jobs. Vancouver had the highest tech job growth rate out of the top 50 U.S. and Canadian tech markets between 2017 and 2022 at 69%, according to CBRE.
Vancouver was followed by Calgary, which had a 61% growth rate, the Waterloo region at 52% and Edmonton at 45%, which shared fourth place with Madison, Wisconsin, the top U.S. city in terms of tech job growth.
"Canadian tech is on a path to a more normalized, sustainable growth trajectory which will make for a healthier sector in the long run," said Paul Morassutti, chairman of CBRE Canada, in a statement. "You could say that Canada's tech sector has shifted from an office market juggernaut to a sleeping giant in the short-term."
CBRE's annual report ranks the top 50 tech markets in the U.S. and Canada on their ability to attract tech employees and looks at tech talent employment market trends amid economic shifts and increased remote hiring. The San Francisco Bay Area held onto its No. 1 spot out of the top 50 tech markets by overall score, which is based on 13 data points such as graduation rates, tech job concentration, tech labor pool and real estate and labor costs.
Toronto slipped to No. 5 from No. 3 last year but was still the highest-ranking Canadian city for overall score. Seattle once again came in at No. 2 for overall score, followed by New York City and Washington, D.C.
Canada had four other cities ranking in the top 20 for overall score besides Toronto, with Vancouver finishing 8th, Ottawa 11th, Montreal 12th and the Waterloo region 18th.
Canadian markets also added the most tech jobs between 2017 and 2022 with Toronto ranking No. 2 in North America with adding 63,800 jobs and Montreal coming in at No. 3 with the addition of 51,500 jobs. The San Francisco Bay Area added the most tech talent jobs over the five-year period with 75,020 jobs, according to CBRE.
"Canadian cities have a solid tech employment base, and job growth in Canadian markets such as Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal are among the highest in North America," Morassutti said.
Tech Concentration
CBRE said tech talent concentration, defined as the percentage of tech jobs that make up a market's total employment, is an influential factor in how "tech" the market is and its growth potential.
Ottawa led all of North America with tech talent concentration comprising 13.3% of its total employment, more than double the 50-market average of 5.6%. The San Francisco Bay Area followed Ottawa with tech talent concentration comprising 11.6% of total jobs.
The Waterloo region came in third for highest tech talent concentration at 10.1% of total employment, while Toronto and Seattle tied at 9.5% to round out the top five most concentrated tech markets.
"The scorecard shows how competitive and tightly clustered the top tech markets are right now. After a period of hyper-growth, the global tech sector is facing headwinds, and like many other sectors of the economy, tech has had to adjust to changing economic circumstances with office rightsizing and layoffs," said Morassutti.
Canada's national office vacancy rate hit 18.1% in the second quarter, the highest it has been since 1994, according to CBRE.
"Canadian office markets are grappling with a perfect storm of a recession threat, interest rate hikes, tech sector weakness, tenants rightsizing and new supply of office space. All of this is compounded by the continued uncertainty around remote work," said the real estate company in its report.