Austin Ranked 6th In U.S. Among Tech Hubs

AUSTIN, TX — Austin once more has ranked in the top 10 on CBRE’s Tech Talent Scorecard, part of its seventh-annual Scoring Tech Talent Report that ranks 50 U.S. and Canadian markets according to their ability to attract and grow tech talent, officials announced Wednesday.

Tech labor concentration — or the percentage of total employment — is an influential factor in how “tech-centric” a market is and its growth potential, analysts noted. Austin has a tech talent labor pool of 72,360, or approximately 7 percent of its overall labor force, according to the findings.

That labor pool for the sector is almost double the tech talent labor concentration level of New York City, researchers noted. The upshot: Overall, the Austin tech talent labor pool has grown 12.6 percent from 2013 to 2018.

Top 10 tech talent markets

1. San Francisco Bay area, San Francisco. Score: 84.7.

2. Seattle. Score 73.82.

3. Toronto, Ontario. Score: 69.88.

4. Washington, D.C. Score: 69.83.

5. New York, New York. Score: 65.12.

6. Austin, Texas. Score: 62.10.

7. Boston. Score: 60.26.

8. Denver. Score: 59.43.

9. Atlanta. Score: 58.08.

10. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Score: 67.68.

Source: CBRE Group, Inc.

Austin also stood out in the report in a number of other key areas as outlined in the report:

• Availability and development capacity of commercial space – Approximately 25.8 million square feet of new office space planned or proposed in the Austin area.
• The rent-to-tech wage ratio is still relatively low at 16.1 percent. For comparison, other top markets like Manhattan or San Francisco Bay Area have rent-to-tech wage ratios of 43.6 percent and 26.4 percent respectively.
• Austin ranks as a top market for educational attainment with 51 percent of urban residents over the age of 25 with bachelor’s degrees or higher. This is much higher than the national average of 31.3 percent.
• According to analysts, Austin continues to see a very high quality of labor in the tech sector with a moderate labor cost making Austin an attractive market for tech firms.
• Analysts also find that Austin is poised to become one of the largest tech growth markets in the next 5 to 10 years.

“As an economy and a community, Austin continues to prove an attractive location for tech talent,” Erin Morales, Senior Vice President at CBRE in Austin and member of the Tech and Media Practice, said in a prepared statement. “Demand from tech companies shows no sign of slowing and we are now seeing employers with a large tech workforce targeting sub-markets outside traditional Austin tech hubs, such as east and south, in addition to continued demand in Austin’s Central Business District.

"It is no surprise that Austin has ranked high on this list every year since its inception. Companies continue to find that Austin can provide them high-quality labor at a lower overhead, compared with other top markets, in a community that their employees and their families want to live in.”

View the full report here. To view individual market statistics and rankings, including rankings on the Scorecard, access CBRE’s Tech Talent Analyzer.

About CBRE Group, Inc.

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2018 revenue). The company has more than 90,000 employees (excluding affiliates) and serves real estate investors and occupiers through more than 480 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide. CBRE offers a broad range of integrated services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services. For more information, visit www.cbre.com.