CBRE ranks DC region’s tech talent #4 for the second consecutive year

While neither better nor worse, DC’s tech space has certainly stayed consistent.

That insight comes from Real estate services and investment firm Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE) recently released its eleventh annual Scoring Tech Talent 2023 report, which placed DC as fourth in this year’s top five North American markets. That upper quintet’s rankings remain the same as last year’s, with the exception of New York moving up to #3 and Toronto down to #5; San Francisco and Seattle remain the top two of CBRE’s overall rankings, which include 50 cities.

Major gateway markets influence growth in tech talent because of their size, according to the report. Large markets have tech talent labor pools of over 50,000 employees, while small markets have less than this amount. As companies in all industries broaden their technology, there is a high demand for talent in both markets.

The report showed that DC has a total of 265,240 tech talent employees, making it a large market. The labor pool has also grown by 7% from 2017 to 2022. 

Tech talent concentration, or the percentage of total employment, is another significant factor in the “tech” aspect of the tech market and its potential for growth.

Colin Yasukochi, executive director of the CBRE Tech Insights Center, said the reason for DC’s consistent place in the top five can be attributed to the size of its tech workforce and educational infrastructure — specifically, how many college students graduate with tech degrees.

“The region also receives a lot of R&D funding from the government that goes to those local universities to help foster innovation,” Yasukochi said. “And then obviously, having a large tech employer there who has a second headquarters certainly helps in creating job demand.”

Other things to note from the report:

• The annual wage for tech talent in DC is $105,808, which is the fifth highest among large tech talent markets.
• Women make up 28.6% of the region’s tech talent — a decrease from last year’s 31.4%.
• With a higher vacancy rate, DC’s office rent prices this year have increased. It is again the seventh most expensive.
  • DC’s average apartment rent prices have also risen, ranked at #8 as the most expensive.

See the report