San Diego, CA
San Diego Climbs Three Spots to Rank in the Top 20 North American Tech Markets in CBRE’s Annual ‘Scoring Tech Talent’ Report
September 5, 2024

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San Diego jumped to #17 overall in CBRE’s 2024 Scoring Tech Talent report, moving up five spots as tech talent hiring in North America slowed despite strong growth in artificial-intelligence specialties, according to a new report from CBRE.
San Diego’s tech talent workforce of 80,400 grew by 3.2% from 2018 to 2023. Software developers and programmers across all industries in San Diego grew by 25.9% over this same timeframe. Nationally, the number of tech talent workers increased by 3.6% last year, down from 7.3% in 2022 as the economy cooled.
Overall, the U.S. and Canada added 231,400 tech talent jobs in 2023 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.
For the second year, CBRE’s report examines tech talent wages paid by tech companies based on geography. San Diego had the ninth-highest average annual wage for tech talent ($107,005) in 2022. The San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle had the highest average wages, while Madison, Wis., and Pittsburgh were the highest among small markets.
"San Diego’s diversified economy creates wide-ranging job opportunities across industries, attracting expertise that has elevated our market ranking," said Darren Morgan, executive vice president for CBRE in San Diego. "In addition to tech job growth at tech companies, professional services, life sciences and manufacturing have continued to add jobs.”
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.
San Diego stood out in the report in several other key areas:
- Software developers and programmers increased by 25.9% from 2018-2023.
- San Diego creates more tech graduates (24,765 from 2018 to 2022) than tech jobs (2,530 from 2019 to 2023), meaning it generates a surplus of tech talent for expanding and relocating companies.
- San Diego ranked 12th among larger markets for growth of residents in their 30s with college degrees (18.4% from 2017 to 2022)
Additionally, CBRE’s latest tech talent analyzer provides an interactive, in-depth comparison of tech talent in different markets. For more information, click here.
About CBRE Group, Inc.
CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Dallas, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2024 revenue). The company has more than 140,000 employees (including Turner & Townsend employees) serving clients in more than 100 countries. CBRE serves a diverse range of clients with an integrated suite of services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com.