BOSTON – Boston is #7 on CBRE’s Tech Talent Scorecard, part of its annual Scoring Tech Talent Report, which ranks 50 U.S. and Canadian markets according to their ability to attract and grow tech talent.
Tech labor concentration – or the percentage of total employment – is an influential factor in how “tech-centric” the market is and its growth potential. Boston has a tech talent labor pool of 160,070, 5.8 percent of its total employment, compared to the national average of 3.7 percent.
Additionally, Boston was ranked #4 for metro area that produced the largest number of tech graduates, right behind New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. The market is a tech talent incubator with an increase in annual tech graduates of 61.0 percent between 2012 and 2017. In the last five years, Greater Boston has produced nearly 34,000 more tech graduates than the market could employ, making it a brain drain market.
The Tech Talent Scorecard is determined based on 13 unique metrics, including tech talent supply, growth, concentration, cost, completed tech degrees, industry outlook for job growth, and market outlook for both office and apartment rent cost growth.
Boston stood out in the report in a number of other key areas:
• Boston is ranked #3 for highest concentration of 20-somethings as a portion of the urban population. Boston’s 20-something population is 24.1 percent, as compared to the U.S average of 13.8 percent.
• Boston’s talent pool includes more than just the high-tech labor pool featured in the report, it is also rich in biotech and ecommerce that are expanding and creating clusters of their own.
• Boston is ranked #5 for gender diversity in tech occupations.
“Boston continues to remain in the top 10 markets for tech talent in the U.S. and Canada, positively impacting commercial real estate growth across the city,” said Adam Brinch, Executive Vice President at CBRE in Boston.
Top 10 tech talent markets:
RANK (2019) MARKET SCORE
1 SF Bay Area, CA 84.79
2 Seattle, WA 73.82
3 Toronto, ON 69.88
4 Washington, D.C. 69.83
5 New York, NY 65.12
6 Austin, TX 62.10
7 Boston, MA 60.26
8 Denver, CO 59.43
9 Atlanta, GA 58.08
10 Raleigh-Durham, NC 57.68
CBRE’s interactive Tech Talent Analyzer found the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Denver and Austin to be the most competitive markets to hire tech talent based on labor market supply/demand, wage costs and talent quality.
“It comes with no surprise that Boston is ranked #7 on CBRE’s Tech Talent report,” Kevin Kennedy, Senior Vice President at CBRE in Boston. “The combination of Boston’s tech graduates, millennial population and assorted tech market all contribute to Boston’s strong ranking.”
