HOUSTON – (By Dale King, Realty News Report) – An in-depth analysis of the high-tech employee talent pool and its impact on economics, real estate and other market sectors provides good news for Canada, the American Northwest and various big cities around the USA, says CBRE’s 2018 Scoring Tech Talent Report.
Houston ranked 32nd among the nation’s 50 largest markets, according to the CBRE report. Austin ranked sixth in the nation. Dallas was No. 12 and San Antonio was No. 46.
The San Francisco area was No. 1, followed by Seattle at No. 2.
The newly released document hones in on the five million tech-trained workers in the U.S. and the 834,000 in Canada – a 16 percent increase in that technology talent pool during just the past five years, the report says. That upsurge added 682,000 jobs to the U.S. economy — a pace more than triple the national job growth average.
The CBRE report ranked 50 of the largest markets in the U.S. and Canada “to create a scorecard using 13 metrics to measure each market’s depth, vitality” and attractiveness to employers and workers. The metrics include the size of the tech talent base, tech loabor cost and rental rates.
Although Austin was a bright spot, the Lone Star State is lagging when compared to other sections of the U.S. and Canada. In fact, the report’s chart of “brain drain or gain” – referring to the growth or loss of tech-talent jobs – lists Toronto as the continent’s top “gainer” with just over 55,000 technology savvy folks heading for the great white north.
Others picking up large job numbers in this field include the San Francisco Bay area, 46,529; Charlotte, N.C., 14,749 and Seattle, a nudge over 10,000.
The lead gainer among the four Texas metros is Austin, with the addition of 1,244 tech jobs. Dallas/Fort Worth pulled in only 815 while San Antonio picked up 314. Houston, ranked 32nd, lost 653 people with a technology mindset.
The report sums up the reasons pretty clearly: “Graduates do not always remain in the labor market where they earn their degrees; they often migrate to locations that offer the best pay or have the best job opportunities.”
Austin does make an appearance in the section on educational attainment. Because 49% of the state capital’s population has earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, Austin joins Atlanta, Denver, Portland and Raleigh-Durham in the category for relatively high attainment of college degrees.
Austin has enticed a significant percentage of high-tech workers and employers. The number of technology occupations increased 20% (to 69,610) in Austin between 2012 and 2017. Non-tech jobs rose about 32% to 156,190 in that same period. The average salary for a tech worker is almost $95,000; for non-tech, just over $60,000.
Stats for Houston show that total tech talent in 2017 was 94,810 compared to 312,450 non-tech workers. Thirty-two percent of the overall work force holds BA degrees or higher.
The report says 2,501 Houstonians, 67.6%, have tech degrees. But 83% of them work in computer engineering, 395 in math and statistics jobs and just 81 in “other tech engineering” fields.
Dallas/Fort Worth’s technology sector has grown 15.3% in five years to 160,750 jobs, workers who make an average salary of $96,633. These trades are a bit more diversified than Houston, including software developers and computer and information systems managers.
Just shy of a half-million people are employed in the non-tech sector where their annual wage is about $57,812. Much like Houston, D/FW reports 30 percent of workers have BA degrees or higher.
San Antonio has 31,180 technology employees, a number that grew about 17 percent from 2012 to 2017. Job types and percentages are similar to the Dallas/Fort Worth breakout. Residents with BA degrees or higher lags the other metropolitan areas at just 26%.
The CBRE report notes that as companies expand their technology capabilities, “demand for tech talent is growing in both large and small markets.” Some of the findings are:
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The top markets in the United States are the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
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Comparing 2018 rankings to the previous year, San Francisco and Seattle maintained their top two scores; Washington D.C. moved up one spot to third and Toronto moved up two spots to fourth.
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Supported by strong tech-centric universities, Boston and Pittsburgh each rose two spots to 7th and 28th, respectively.
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The top 10 small tech markets increased by more than 10%.
Charlotte grew at the fastest pace of all 50 markets, 59 percent.
The CBRE report points to the continued need for tech labor. “The increase in tech-degree graduates is beginning to better supply the labor market for tech talent. This year, fewer markets posted a brain gain, but there still is a high level of demand and inadequate supply for the most sought-after tech skills.”
Aug. 14, 2018 Realty News Report Copyright 2018