The Best Cities for Tech Jobs Include Vancouver and Portland

7/19/2019
Forbes

  This via Forbes Magazine...
 

Growth in tech jobs is spreading to smaller markets more than ever, accelerating a trend two years in the making, according to an annual report by real estate firm CBRE. While hotspots such as Silicon Valley and Seattle continue to swell, jobs in these markets are reaching an inflection point, prompting companies to uncover talent at the source: universities. Smaller tech hubs including Vancouver, Portland, Oregon and Madison, Wisconsin are the biggest beneficiaries as hulking tech enterprises expand their presence beyond their home bases.

The report includes a yearly ranking of the 50 best markets for tech talent based on factors such as labor costs and the percent of jobs in a city that are tech-related. No cities fell out of the top ten, though Toronto—which posted the strongest five-year labor pool uptick at 54%—leapfrogged Washington, D.C. to take third place behind the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle.

“The amount of tech talent available in North America is very tight and limited, so employers are having to go to markets—oftentimes, small markets—to uncover new opportunities for growth, because talent and innovation can be anywhere,” says Colin Yasukochi, CBRE’s director of research and analysis.

Jobs in technology are growing in and outside the tech industry, as businesses increasingly need tech employees to run operations in the digital age. Tech graduates can find opportunities close to their alma mater, so tech companies have begun to restrategize expansion plans, Yasukochi says. “Oftentimes it's easier for individuals who are more accustomed to that particular area and lifestyle to want to work in their hometown or these smaller towns than it would be to move to a major market on the coast,” he said.