San Diego ranks in the top 20 of CBRE’s Tech Talent Scorecard, part of the annual Scoring Tech Talent Report, comparing 50 North American markets according to the ability to attract and nurture talent.
The ranking dipped slightly to 19th this year, a drop of one place, behind Minneapolis and Phoenix.
Tech labor concentration – or the percentage of total employment – is an influential factor in how “tech-centric” the market is, along with its growth potential.
San Diego’s tech-talent labor pool ranks 20th nationally at 76,770 workers, which amounts to 5.1% of the overall local workforce.
The national average is 3.7%.
The top five markets for tech talent in 2020 were the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington D.C., Seattle, Toronto and New York, all large markets with a tech labor pool of more than 50,000.
“We continue to be bullish about the future of the San Diego tech market, even amidst a global pandemic,” said Andy Ewald, first vice president in CBRE’s San Diego office. “San Diego has incredible fundamentals to support the growth of tech-related companies in our market. With a strong pool of highly skilled labor emerging from our universities every year, I am confident that businesses will look to our market to expand over time.”
The report outlines how tech-talent jobs are better positioned to weather COVID-19, related shutdowns and the ensuing recession as companies across all industries increasingly require the technical skills this talent base offers.
Many tech products and services such as streaming, remote communications and social media now are in higher demand to support remote work and social distancing.
Tech employment also has shown it can withstand economic shocks. In the 2008-10 recession, tech-talent employment declined by 0.5 % while overall U.S. employment registered a 5.5% drop.
CBRE’s Tech Talent Scorecard is determined based on 13 metrics, including talent supply, growth, concentration, cost, completed tech degrees, industry outlook for job growth and market outlook for growth of both office and apartment rental costs.
– Staff reports