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Ottawa jumps to 10th in CBRE’s tech talent rankings as job growth soars

September 4, 2024
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Ottawa cracked the top 10 in real estate firm CBRE’s annual ranking of North American tech markets after posting the second-highest rate of job growth over the past five years. The report ranks 50 North American markets according to each city’s ability to attract and grow tech talent. The survey measures more than a dozen metrics, including tech graduation rates, tech-job concentration and tech labour pool size as well as labour and real estate costs, among other factors. According to CBRE, Ottawa added 31,300 tech talent jobs between 2018 and 2023, representing growth of 51.7 per cent. Calgary, where the tech labour force expanded by a whopping 78.1 per cent, was the only market with a higher growth rate during that time period. The nation’s capital placed 10th in CBRE’s overall rankings, up one spot from last year. Ottawa was the second-highest-ranked Canadian city after Toronto, which moved up to fourth spot from fifth a year ago. The top three markets were the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and New York. “The tech sector has come off the boil but remains a key driver of our economy and office demand,” CBRE Canada chairman Paul Morassutti said in a statement. “Four Canadian cities produced the highest percentage increase of tech talent jobs, which points to the strength of the tech sector in Canada. Our tech talent workforce is well-educated and Canadian cities boast some of the highest concentrations of young people. This will ensure Canada remains at the forefront of technology-driven growth.” CBRE includes workers from more than 20 professions, including software engineers and systems and data managers, in its survey. It says the Ottawa tech industry employed about 91,500 people in 2023, up from 60,300 five years earlier. (By contrast, Statistics Canada – which defines tech employment more narrowly around information and communication technology firms – said in its July labour market report about 56,300 local residents were employed in tech fields.) The city continued to score high marks for having the highest concentration of tech talent relative to its overall workforce of any city in the top 50, with 12.3 per cent of all workers employed in tech – tied for top spot with the San Francisco Bay Area. Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE's tech insights centre, says increased demand for skill sets in artificial intelligence has fuelled tech talent job growth across all sectors. He adds hiring growth will continue this year and next year as companies further develop and adopt AI tech. The report says major Canadian tech centres, including Vancouver, Montreal and Waterloo, dropped in their tech talent rankings. – With additional reporting from the Canadian Press