Demand for many tech services has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping North American tech talent to prove resilient amid economic uncertainty. This signals that the pandemic is unlikely to derail the growing importance of tech-talent hubs, ranging from long-time cornerstones such as the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C., to smaller, emerging clusters in Huntsville, Ala., and Quebec City, Quebec, according to CBRE’s annual Scoring Tech Talent report.
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“We expect that most tech-talent hubs and professions will thrive after the pandemic subsides, and many that facilitate remote work, ecommerce, social media and streaming services may have even greater growth opportunities accelerated by the COVID-19 disruption”
Tech-talent occupations are more resilient than most others because employers are reluctant to let go of coveted tech skills when tech services are in high demand. Tech employment has shown it can withstand economic shocks: In the 2008-2010 recession, tech-talent employment declined by 0.5 percent while overall U.S. employment registered a 5.5 percent drop.
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“We expect that most tech-talent hubs and professions will thrive after the pandemic subsides, and many that facilitate remote work, ecommerce, social media and streaming services may have even greater growth opportunities accelerated by the COVID-19 disruption,” said Colin Yasukochi, Executive Director of CBRE’s Tech Insights Center. “Markets that have strong innovation infrastructure – leading universities and high concentrations of tech jobs – will lead the next growth cycle.”
CBRE defines tech talent as 20 tech-focused occupations found in all industry sectors, including software developers, programmers, and computer and information system managers. CBRE ranks the top 50 markets in its annual Tech Talent Scorecard by assessing 13 metrics on a weighted basis, including tech-talent supply, concentration, cost, completed tech degrees and real estate costs.
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