There is a gap of 1,553 between the number of tech degrees earned in Tampa Bay and the number of tech jobs added in the past five years, according to a new report from CBRE highlighting the growth of tech space throughout the country.
The 2023 Scoring Tech Talent Report ranks Tampa Bay No. 33rd in the U.S. for its tech pipeline.
The Tampa Bay region saw 8,983 students graduate with tech degrees from 2017 to 2021 and added 7,430 tech jobs from 2018 to 2022 as those students entered the workforce.
In the same timeframe, the population of 20-year-olds in the tech industry increased only by 0.2%, while 30-year-olds increased by 13.5%.
Layoffs in the tech sector, both nationally and locally, have underscored much of the past year. Still, as companies regain their financial footing in the industry, it could be an opportunity to retain more recent graduates interested in tech.
In March, the demand for technology qualifications in the Tampa Bay area was heavily skewed to information and cybersecurity certifications.
There were 2,111 jobs requesting these credentials. To put this in perspective, 37,651 job postings asked for nursing qualifications ranging from a CPR credential to a license as a registered nurse; 3,220 jobs requested a transportation certification such as a commercial driver’s license.
As tech talent has grown in the past five years, tech wages in Tampa Bay are up; the average annual salary is $73,962, which ranks the highest in Florida.
On the real estate side, running a 500-person tech firm in 60,000 square feet of office space would cost almost $48 million annually, while rent for tech office space sat at $29.91 per square foot as of the fourth quarter of last year.
The full report and methodology can be found here.
