Milwaukee's tech talent and technology job market improved in comparison with other North American tech hubs in 2022, although there was little direction to go but up.
That’s according to a report from real estate firm CBRE Group Inc., which ranked the Milwaukee metro area No. 45 for tech talent — up four spots from last year when it ranked second-lo-last.
The report, which has been released annually during the past 10 years, ranked 50 metros in the U.S. and Canada based on depth, vitality and attractiveness to tech companies and tech professionals. The metros in the 2022 Scoring Tech Talent ranking were those that had the largest numbers of tech professionals. Labor and real estate costs were also factors. Overall, 13 metrics were analyzed.
According to CBRE, Milwaukee's tech job market improved between 2016 and 2021, with overall employment growing 13.1% over the five-year period. Wages also increased, by 8.6%. The greatest growth in jobs was for software developers and programmers, which surged 78.8% over the period. Wages in that segment, however, slipped by 1.1%.
In Milwaukee, the percentage of software engineers across all industries was 42.9%. For comparison, the top markets of Seattle and the San Francisco Bay area have software engineer concentrations of 77.1% and 74.6%, respectively.
For the tech talent pool, metro Milwaukee struggles. CBRE found Milwaukee losing 4.1% of its 20- to 24-year-old population between 2015 and 2020, while the 25- to 39-year-old population grew by a dismal 3.5%. Only four other markets saw worse numbers in that demographic.
Across North America, a net 136,000 tech talent jobs were added in 2021, the report found, with job growth and tech office leasing rebounding that year after a pandemic-induced slowdown in 2020.
The top five metros for tech talent overall were the same between 2021 and 2022. They are: San Francisco Bay area, Seattle, Toronto, Washington, D.C., and New York City.
The Phoenix Business Journal contributed to this report.
