Article
Canada Leads Tech Talent Growth, Toronto Makes a Comeback
September 18, 2024 4 Minute Read
Having lost ground last year, Toronto is back at #4 in CBRE’s new Scoring Tech Talent ranking, taking the place of Washington, D.C.
Toronto’s resurgence is the result of 95,900 tech jobs having been added there between 2018 and 2023, a 44% increase. It’s a dose of good news for Canada’s largest city in the face of economic challenges, brutal traffic, and layoffs across the tech industry.
Toronto isn’t the only Canadian market churning out tech talent: Calgary (+78.1%), Ottawa (+51.7%) and Waterloo Region (+45.5%) outpaced Toronto in tech job growth across North America.
“The tech sector has come off the boil, but remains a key driver of our economy and office demand,” says CBRE Canada Chairman Paul Morassutti. “Four Canadian cities produced the highest percentage increase of tech talent jobs, which points to the strength of the tech sector in Canada.”
Canadian Markets Fare Well
Tech talent is a group of highly skilled workers in more than 20 tech-oriented occupations – such as software engineers and systems and data managers – across all industries. Overall, the U.S. and Canada added 231,400 tech talent jobs last year.
CBRE’s annual Scoring Tech Talent report covers 75 North American markets, ranks the top 50 tech markets in the U.S. and Canada and outlines tech talent labour market trends amid economic shifts and increased remote hiring.
The San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and New York Metro remained the top three tech talent markets, while Austin joined Toronto in moving up one spot this year to round out the top five.
Ottawa, with more tech workers employed in government than in the actual tech industry, moved up one position to the #10 spot in the ranking. Vancouver dropped to #11 (from #8), Montreal fell to #15 (from #12), and Waterloo Region remained at #18. Calgary rose to #20 (from #21 last year), Quebec City fell to #40 (from #35) and Edmonton fell to #49 (from #39).
CBRE also ranks the Next 25 emerging tech markets on a narrower set of criteria. London, ON, is No. 4 in this ranking, with 88.5% tech job growth in the past 5 years. Halifax (No. 5), Winnipeg (No. 13) once again make appearances in this list.
AI Takeover
Although tech hiring has slowed across North America, AI specialties are in high demand. Canada has become a leader in this space, with Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal accounting for 60% of the country’s 41,374 AI workers.
The tech industry employed 46% of total AI-specialty talent in Canada, compared to 48% in the U.S., the largest sector in each country. The San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and New York Metro claimed the highest volume of AI workers by market, making up 44% of the 285,235 AI tech jobs in the U.S.
According to Colin Yasukochi, Executive Director of CBRE’s Tech Insights Center, demand for AI skills will continue to grow in the coming years, fueling tech job creation across all sectors. “We anticipate more tech hiring to take place this year and into 2025 as companies further develop and adopt this technology,” he says.
This trend is promising for Canada’s tech sector, which is well-positioned to capitalize on the growth of AI.
Young and Educated
Canada is in an optimal state to lead future tech growth and innovation, thanks to an educated labour force and a high concentration of young talent. Waterloo Region (+20.2%), Vancouver (+18.4%), Toronto (+16.4%), Ottawa (+15.1%) and Edmonton (+10.1%) were among the 18 markets that saw their total number of residents in their 30s increase by more than 10% since 2017. Waterloo Region (+29.2%), Toronto (+13.1%) and Austin (+12.5%) had the highest growth of residents in their 20s.
Meanwhile, six Canadian cities were among the 13 markets that created more jobs than tech graduates over five years. Toronto, Calgary, San Francisco Bay Area, and Ottawa were the top four tech job markets.
“Our tech talent workforce is well-educated and Canadian cities boast some of the highest concentrations of young people,” says Morassutti. “This will ensure Canada remains at the forefront of technology-driven growth.”
Click here to download the report
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