Madison Ranks #25 in CBRE’s Annual ‘Scoring Tech Talent’ Report

Madison ranks #25 overall in CBRE’s 2023 Scoring Tech Talent report, moving up five spots from last year as macroeconomic headwinds slowed tech talent hiring by major tech firms in North America, according to a new report from CBRE.

Overall, the U.S. and Canada added a net 760,000 tech talent jobs since 2020 across established hubs such as the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Seattle and Vancouver as well as smaller markets like Nashville, Cleveland and Canada’s Waterloo Region. The number of U.S. tech talent workers increased 7.3% from May 2021 to May 2022, which is significantly higher than the 5% growth in total U.S. employment in May 2022. Software developers and programmers across all industries accounted for more than half of the new tech talent employment.

“Madison climbed five spots in this year’s report from 2022, which is the fourth largest jump this year for all markets,” said James West, a Vice President with CBRE in Madison. “The tech talent market is tied for the fourth highest tech job growth rate since 2017 at 45%, which has been driven by a large amount of young people moving to and staying in Madison for tech jobs.

“It’s an impressive feat to be this high on the list while having the smallest number of tech workers in the top 50 markets,” said Chase Brieman, a Senior Vice President with CBRE in Madison. “With our highly diverse economy, access to top tier talent from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and perennial ranking as one of the best places to live, we only see this trend continuing.”

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 defined as 20 key tech professions – such as software engineers and systems and data managers – across all industries.

For the first time this year, CBRE’s report examines tech talent wages paid by tech companies based on geography. Madison had the 15th highest average annual wage for tech talent employed by tech companies among U.S. cities at $97,196. The San Francisco Bay Area ($185,425) and Seattle ($172,009) had the highest average wages, while Sacramento ($107,580) and Jacksonville ($105,353) were the highest among small markets (50,000 tech workers or less).

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

• Madison’s tech talent workforce of 23,530 grew by 45.2% from 2017 to 2022. That’s the fourth-largest gain among all markets and second largest of the small markets.
• It has the second highest concentration of all markets of residents in their 20s, tied with Canada’s Waterloo Region at 16.6%. The market is also the eighth top market for educational attainment with a 48.8% attainment rate. The national average for U.S. markets is 35%.
• Madison is the only market in the top 50 markets where the percentage of females in the tech industry (29.3%) is more than the percentage of females in the office-using population in the metro (28.9%).
• The Madison office market has the second lowest vacancy rate (8.4%) of those measured in the report in Q4 2022. A slight majority, 56.6%, of Madison’s tech talent work in the tech industry, the fourth highest concentration overall and the highest concentration of any small market (<50,000 tech talent workforce). The FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) industries have the next highest concentration of tech jobs in the market at 11%. Tech jobs make up 6.1% of Madison’s total jobs.
• Madison has relatively affordable real estate costs for a top 25 tech hub. Its average annual office asking rent ($21.36 per sq. ft. per year) is 39th most expensive, its average monthly apartment rent ($1,354 per month) is 18th least expensive and its ratio of tech salary to apartment rent of 17.8% is 19th lowest, tied with Minneapolis/St. Paul, Raleigh-Durham and Baltimore, making it an affordable place to be a tech worker.

To download the full report, click here.

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