Denver’s technology ecosystem is growing and prospective workers from across the country are taking notice.
A recent report from commercial real estate and investment firm CBRE ranked Denver No. 12 overall in tech talent across North America.
In ranking its list, CBRE’s 2021 Scoring Tech Talent report analyzes 13 metrics of a market’s ability to attract and develop tech talent, ranging from tech graduation rates, tech job concentration, tech labor pool size, and labor and real estate costs.
The top of this year’s list won’t surprise you, as San Francisco was No. 1, with Seattle, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Canada, and New York City rounding out the top five.
With 114,900 tech workers, Denver ranked No. 12 on the list and had a 31.1% increase from 2015 in tech worker numbers. That rate registered as the sixth-fastest growth in North America in that timeframe.
In total, tech jobs accounted for 7% of the total jobs in Denver’s workforce, which was nearly twice as high as the national average of 3.9%.
“With an expanding talent pool, strong employee in-migration and affordable cost of living, Denver remains a top consideration for tech companies who are considering their expansion plans,” Alex Hammerstein, CBRE senior vice president, said in a statement. “The market’s tech talent base remains strong as we continue to move up in the report’s Brain Gain category, which confirms our ability to keep talent local by offering great employment opportunities. As we look at the continued trajectory of companies moving their headquarters to Colorado, we suspect that our tech talent pool will not only continue to grow, but also attract new types of talent that choose Denver as a home.”
A primary driver of Denver’s tech talent gain is the young talent moving to the city. According to CBRE, the millennial population aged 22 to 36 grew 20.1% since 2014. It is also the third-most concentrated millennial market, with about one-third of Denver’s population in this tech talent cohort.
Denver has also been able to keep its tech wages competitive, with its average pay of $107,481 ranking ninth highest in North America.
But it’s not just Denver that is garnering attention in CBRE’s report.
Colorado Springs ranked third in the report’s North America’s Next 25 section, a specific group of markets CBRE thinks are up and coming.
The city has nearly 20,000 tech employees, which is up 21% in the last five years. It also offers a competitive salary to its neighbors in Denver, offering an average of $102,630.
Those factors were strong enough to place Colorado Springs behind only Dayton, Ohio, and Huntsville, Alabama, on the Next 25 rankings.
