Austin Climbs into Top Five North American Tech Market in CBRE’s Annual ‘Scoring Tech Talent’ Report

Austin ranked #5 overall in CBRE’s 2024 Scoring Tech Talent report, moving up one spot as its tech talent workforce grew 29.1% between 2018 and 2023, the highest growth rate of any U.S. tech market. The capital of Texas now has 99,460 people working in various tech-related jobs, an increase of 22,390 over those five years.

While overall tech hiring in North America has slowed in recent years, there has been strong growth in artificial-intelligence specialties. Austin now has 7,396 tech talent workers specialized in AI, making it a top 10 market in North America. Most Austinites working in tech jobs were software engineers (62.1%), according to CBRE’s report.

“Austin’s tech labor market is constantly evolving, from its origins in government, higher education, and semiconductors to the dot-com era of software development and entrepreneurship to more recently over the last ten years, with major multinational companies planting flags here or significantly expanding footprints here,” said Nate Stricklen, Vice Chairman with CBRE in Austin. “This trend continues with the rise of AI, attracting that development talent and driving growth in semiconductors and data centers. Austin's recovery is historically characterized by rapid ascent after any downturn, and I think we’re on the cusp of that."

Overall, the U.S. and Canada added 231,400 tech talent jobs in 2023. The number of U.S. tech talent workers increased by 3.6% last year, down from 7.3% in 2022 as the economy cooled. Software developers and programmers across all industries accounted for 72% of the new tech talent jobs last year, with the hiring of artificial-intelligence specialists particularly robust.

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 labor market trends amid economic shifts and increased remote hiring. CBRE also ranks the Next 25 emerging tech markets on a narrower set of criteria. 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.

For the second year, CBRE’s report examines tech talent wages paid by tech companies based on geography. Austin had the fifth-highest average annual wage for tech talent employed in the tech industry ($119,983) in 2022, the last time this data was publicly available. The San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle had the highest average wages, while Madison, Wis., and Pittsburgh were the highest among small markets.

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

• Over half (52.1%) of Austin’s residents aged 25 and up have earned at least a bachelor’s degree. This makes it the third-highest educational attainment rate of the 50 markets (behind Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay Area)
• Austin ranked first in population growth among residents in the 20s with college degrees (41.7%) and those in their 30s (51.9%) between 2017 and 2022.
• Austin ranked second in population growth among those in their 20s (12.5%) and those in their 30s (18.2%) for large markets from 2017 to 2022.
• Austin imports tech talent in that it generated 22,390 new tech jobs from 2019 to 2023 against 14,340 tech graduates from 2018 to 2022.

Additionally, CBRE’s latest tech talent analyzer provides an interactive, in-depth comparison of tech talent in different markets.