Seattle Boasts Highest Quality Tech Talent in North America According to CBRE Report

Seattle stands out as the most educated city in North America, holding its spot as #2 in the Scoring Tech Talent report

Seattle retained the number two ranking in CBRE’s annual Scoring Tech Talent Report, which ranks the top-50 North American markets in their ability to attract, retain and grow tech talent. The top five markets for tech talent in 2019 were the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Toronto, Washington, D.C. and New York, all large markets with a tech labor pool of more than 150,000.

Seattle edged ahead of the San Francisco Bay Area for the highest quality tech labor pool, measured by the concentration of software engineers/developers with over three years of experience and degrees from the top 25 computer science programs in North America. The city is also the top market for educational attainment for adults over the age of 25 with 62.3% of this group holding a bachelor’s degree or higher–twice the national average in the U.S.

“The ability of the Seattle region to produce, retain and attract talent is the reason why the city has such a highly educated population and consistent addition of intellectual capital,” said Matt Walters of CBRE’s Seattle office.

Between 2013 and 2018, Seattle had a “brain gain” of 15,467 people, meaning more tech jobs were created than tech degree graduates produced. This resulted in a 24.3% increase in tech workers over the past five years, which brings the concentration of tech jobs to 7.9% of all employment—the fifth highest in the nation.

“While Seattle’s tech labor pool is smaller than the Bay Area’s, our market is quickly catching up in terms of concentration and the quality of the talent here,” said Walters. “These numbers are a testament to the growth that has followed in the wake of large tech companies moving into the area.”

“The region’s high concentration of talent and significantly high level of educational attainment create a compelling draw for expanding tech companies,” said Brian Biege of CBRE’s Seattle office.

Tech clusters can form around leading companies that attract other companies to a region, in turn supporting entrepreneurs as they develop their innovations, as seen in Seattle. Tech companies use these clusters for synergy and competition, thereby accelerating the innovation process and increasing tech pool growth in the city.

Seattle stood out in the report in several other key areas:

• Seattle has the highest quality of talent as measured in the report
• Seattle has the second-highest average tech worker salary at approximately $118,000, 22% above the national average.
• Seattle is the second most competitive market for those hiring tech talent, behind the San Francisco Bay Area
• The millennial population has grown by 10.2% since 2012
• Seattle has the highest concentration of software engineers, which account for 58% of all tech occupations
  
  

Top 10 tech talent markets:

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.

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.

View the full report here. To view individual market statistics and rankings, including rankings on the Scorecard, access CBRE’s Tech Talent Analyzer.