San Diego County CA— San Diego ranked #19 on CBRE’s Tech Talent Scorecard, part of its fifth annual Scoring Tech Talent Report, which ranks 50 U.S. and Canadian markets according to their ability to attract and grow tech talent. San Diego’s tech labor force grew 27.7 percent over the past five years and now totals 66,340.
The report, which can be viewed in detail by market in the interactive Tech Talent Analyzer, finds that strong demand for talent that offer specific skills, such as software development, coupled with a tight labor supply, is driving companies to locate in markets with the largest concentrations of high quality talent. And while value is a key driver when it comes to choosing an office location, companies are showing that they are willing to pay a premium to access the highest quality tech talent.
“Since the cost of talent is the largest expense for most firms, the quality of that tech talent is becoming one of their most important considerations. The skills of the available labor pool do not appear to align with available jobs, causing a structural impediment to growth for companies across North America,” said Colin Yasukochi, director of research and analysis for CBRE and the report’s author.
San Diego is an attractive market for tech talent, particularly due to its affordable living costs compared to top competitive markets such as the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City and Los Angeles.

Tech Talent Scorecard
The top 10-ranked cities on the Tech Talent Scorecard were all large markets, each with a tech labor pool of more than 50,000. The San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Toronto, Raleigh-Durham, Austin, Boston and Dallas/Ft. Worth made up the top 10.
The rankings for the Tech Talent Scorecard are determined based on 13 unique metrics including tech talent supply, growth, concentration, cost, completed tech degrees, industry outlook for job growth, and market outlook for both office and apartment rent cost growth.
Helping to elevate its ranking on the Scorecard, San Diego stood out in the report in a number of key areas:

• San Diego is one of the highest-paying markets, taking the eighth spot. Over a five-year span, average tech wages climbed 13 percent to $100,258.
• San Diego was the twentieth largest tech talent labor pool among large markets, with 66,340 tech employees, behind Austin (68,810) and Orange County (68,220).
• San Diego’s office rents increased by 30 percent to $33.52 and its vacancy rate decreased 5.3 percentage points to 11.5 percent from Q1 2012 to Q1 2017.
• San Diego produced 2,734 tech degrees, a 22.9 percent increase over the past five years.
• San Diego is a strong tech-job creator and tech talent attractor, with 2,000 more tech jobs than graduates.

“San Diego has a strong tech talent pool and the market is strengthening due to factors such as competitive tech wages and a lower cost of living compared to other cities in which we compete for talent,” said Andrew Ewald, vice president, who leads CBRE’s Tech and Media Practice in San Diego. ”San Diego is special because of the diversity of its tech talent. Our highest concentration of tech labor is in the database and systems, software development and engineering related fields, all of which support industries with strong presences in San Diego, such as defense, medical device, life sciences and communication technology.
To view the full report, please click here.