Nashville Ranks #38 In CBRE’s Annual ‘Scoring Tech Talent’ Report

Nashville ranks #38 overall in CBRE’s 2023 Scoring Tech Talent report, moving up two spots 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.

"Nashville's tech market continues to rise and it reflects in this year’s report, as the city increased its ranking from #41 to #38," said David Gossett, Vice President at CBRE in Nashville. "With its business-friendly environment, strategic central location and a spirit of collaboration, our community draws companies from across the U.S. seeking to relocate or establish new ventures. Major e-commerce and computer software firms have embraced Nashville, captivated by its exponential growth prospects and exceptional connectivity to a vast portion of the nation."

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. Nashville had the ninth highest average annual wage for tech talent ($87,543) in tech companies among small tech talent markets (markets with less than 50,000 tech workers). 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.

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

• Nashville’s tech talent workforce of 39,180 grew by 36% from 2017 to 2022. That’s the fifth biggest gain among small tech talent markets.
• It created more tech jobs (9,950 from 2017 to 2021) than tech graduates (5,270) from 2018 to 2022).
• Nashville’s population of people in their 20s increased by 4.5% from 2016 to 2021, the second biggest gain among small markets in that span behind Canada’s Waterloo Region.
• Nashville also saw the largest increase in residents in their 20s with college degrees (28.1%) and the third largest increase in residents in their 30s with college degrees (31.1%) among small markets during the same span.
• Nashville has relatively affordable annual operating costs for tech firms. Its estimated annual cost for firms with 500 employees occupying 60,000 sq. ft. ($44.7 million) is the 11th least expensive among all tech markets.

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.