CBRE: Platform Pillar Team Blog Takeover

In these blog takeovers, you’ll hear directly from Platform Calgary’s Pillar Team – a group of trusted in-house services firms providing professional guidance and mentorship to founders and startups as part of the Platform Innovation Centre. In the first in this series of posts, hear from Platform Partner CBRE:

Out now! CBRE’s Scoring Tech Talent report is out, and it is a comprehensive analysis of labour market conditions, cost and quality in North America for highly skilled tech workers that can help decision-makers fulfill critical business and innovation objectives.

The report ranks fifty of North America’s largest tech talent markets by a range of criteria including:

• depth, vitality and attractiveness to companies seeking tech talent and to tech workers seeking employment;
• relative importance to innovation and job creation;
• tech talent concentration (this metric holds the highest weight);
• labour costs and office rents.

CBRE’s Scoring Tech Talent report offers valuable insights into our Canadian tech market and highlights our multiple and optimal competitive advantages.  

Firstly, our Canadian tech market boasts an advantage in tech talent workforce growth over our U.S. counterpart of 15.7% (CDN) compared to 11.4% (U.S.). While the labour market for tech talent appears to be softening, it remains competitive even during a slower economy and layoffs. Secondly, three Canadian markets (Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal) also created substantially more jobs than tech degree graduates. At the same time, New York Metro, Washington, D.C. and Chicago produced more graduates than jobs, making Canada a more attractive job market for the existing tech talent.  

This year, Calgary moved up seven spots in the rankings, landing us in the 21st position among the 50 top tech markets analyzed in North America. Due to Calgary’s tech talent workforce growth of 61% between 2017 and 2022, the report named us one of the three most improved markets. This growth results from the migration of young talent to seize the quality of life and low cost of living Calgary offers, outside companies choosing Calgary to relocate to, and the existing tech companies.  

As companies across all industries expand their technology usage, there is a high demand for tech talent in both large and small markets.

Are you a startup looking for support with finding office and work spaces, negotiating real estate leases and renewals, return to office strategy and real estate insight? Connect with CBRE and the rest of the Platform Pillar Team.