San Diego Ranks No. 20 in CBRE’s Annual ‘Scoring Tech Talent’ Report

San Diego ranks No. 20 overall in CBRE’s 2023 Scoring Tech Talent report, slipping three 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.

San Diego’s tech talent workforce of 78,860 grew by 12.5% from 2017 to 2022. Computer and information systems managers across all industries grew by 60% over this same timeframe.

The number of U.S. tech talent workers also 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.

"San Diego’s diversified economy with tech, manufacturing and life science companies all requiring tech talent has created wide-ranging job opportunities and expertise that has kept our marketing high in the rankings," said Zach DiSalvo, CBRE's Field Research Manager in San Diego. "Multiple Fortune Top 25 tech companies and other employers have expanded or opening new locations in the region."

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. San Diego had the ninth highest average annual wage for tech talent in the tech industry ($105,316). 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.

San Diego stood out in the report in several other key areas:

• San Diego saw a 37% increase in residents with a tech degree between 2017 and 2021. The number of tech-related degrees grew in North America by 60,000 during the same period.
• San Diego creates more tech graduates (23,568 from 2017 to 2021) than tech jobs (3,790 from 2018 to 2022), meaning it generates a surplus of tech talent for expanding and relocating companies.
• San Diego ranks among the top 10 markets with a concentration of residents in their 20s (14.9%) and 30s (15.6%), and it is the 14th-ranked market for growth in residents in their 20s with a college degree from 2016 to 2021 at 12.3%.
• San Diego is the market with the second-highest number of technology-engineering related jobs (14,630).
• San Diego has one of the highest real estate costs for a leading tech hub. Its average annual office asking rent ($38.88 per sq. ft.) is the 10th most expensive, its average monthly apartment rent ($2,777 a month) is the third highest market, and its ratio of apartment rent to tech salary of 29.3% is the fourth highest.

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.