Greater Seattle No. 2 in Tech Talent Report

The Seattle MSA, which includes Counties of King, Snohomish and Pierce, has moved up to # 2 in CBRE’s 2021 Scoring Tech Talent report, CBRE announced on Tuesday. Seattle’s average tech salary of $ 126,730 was also number 2 in North America, an increase of more than 15 percent over the past five years.

The annual report ranks the top 50 North American markets by analyzing 13 metrics of their ability to attract and develop technical talent, including technical completion rates, concentration of technical jobs, the size of the technical workforce, and labor and real estate costs said CBRE in a press release. It added that technical talent is defined as 20 key technical occupations – such as software developer and system and data manager – across all industries.

The San Francisco Bay Area was the top-rated market for tech talent in 2020, followed by Seattle, Washington, DC, Toronto and New York City.

Seattle has the seventh largest pool of technical talent in North America with 184,660 technicians, CBRE said, adding that tech jobs account for 9.4 percent of total jobs in the Seattle MSA workforce, making the fifth highest concentration of technical talent among the top -50 markets.

“Office demand has increased over the past 30 to 60 days, with technology being a major driver of that demand,” said Michael Dash, vice chairman of CBRE in Seattle, in the press release. “With the massive migration of tech talent to Seattle in recent years, combined with Seattle’s large number of skilled, local talent, both established blue-chip companies and emerging startups are confident that their labor needs will be met. Seattle’s unique technology ecosystem, quality of life and relative affordability compared to coastal markets are several benefits that will continue to attract high-quality tech talent to the region. “

Further findings from Seattle in the report according to the press release:

• Seattle has the third fastest growing technical workforce in North America. In the past five years, Seattle has created 48,300 technology jobs.
• Seattle’s millennial population, ages 22 to 36, has grown the fastest of any major technology market at nearly 22 percent since 2014. Seattle is also the second most concentrated millennial market after Austin, Texas, with roughly a third of Seattle residents in this cohort.
• The market ranks ninth for educational attainment, with 44.1 percent of residents over the age of 25 holding a bachelor’s degree or higher (compared to a US average of 33.1 percent).
• More than 30 percent of engineering graduates in Seattle universities were female, making it one of the gender-richest markets for engineering graduates.
• Seattle also stands out as a top tech job creator. The market ranked second on Brain Gain, which means it has created 29,336 more tech jobs than tech degrees have been earned in the market in the past five years.
• The average office rent is the seventh most expensive of the top tech markets. The rise in office rents has increased by 34 percent over the past five years.
• The average annual cost of running a technology company with 500 employees in 75,000 square feet in Seattle is $ 56.7 million. This is the third most expensive in the top 50 tech talent markets.

The report also showed that North American tech employment weathered the pandemic better than most other jobs.

Tech’s growth can be seen on the Eastside, where Microsoft is renovating and expanding its campus in Redmond, adding Facebook buildings in Bellevue’s Spring District, and Amazon is planning around 25,000 employees in downtown Bellevue over the next few years. In addition to these brand names, countless other smaller companies are also growing in the region.