The Seattle area is the second-ranked market overall for tech talent in North America, trailing only the San Francisco Bay Area and outpacing New York City, Washington, D.C., and Toronto, according to the 2023 “Scoring Tech Talent” report from CBRE.
The annual analysis recognized that macroeconomic headwinds have forced layoffs and slowed hiring across the tech industry, but highly skilled tech talent workers are spread across a variety of industry sectors. For example, a software developer who works for a health care company is considered tech talent.
The number of U.S. tech talent workers has increased by 610,000 or 11.4% since 2020 — well above the 6.3% growth in total U.S. employment.
Here are some Seattle-specific highlights from the report:
- Seattle’s tech talent workforce of 194,040 grew by 28.6% (44,020) from 2017 to 2022. That’s tied for the eighth-biggest gain among large tech talent markets by percentage and sixth most by volume.
- Seattle had the second highest average annual wage for tech talent working at tech companies ($172,009), just behind the San Francisco Bay Area ($185,425).
- Seattle ranks second in percentage of software engineers employed in the tech industry (76.4%), trailing only San Francisco (76.6%).
- Seattle’s population of people in their 30s increased by 14% from 2016 to 2021, the third biggest gain among large markets in the U.S. over that span. Seattle is the second most concentrated U.S. market for people in their 30s with 16.8%, trailing only Austin at 17.5%.
- Seattle remains a top destination for new tech jobs, adding 23,094 tech degrees from 2017 to 2021 while adding 43,190 jobs from 2018 to 2022. The +20,096 differential is second most among U.S. markets.
- Seattle is in the top 10 U.S. cities for educational attainment, with 46.8% of Seattle’s adult population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher.
“Seattle continues to be a top-tier hub for innovation, and we don’t foresee that changing anytime soon due to the incredible depth of talent in the area,” Matt Walters, an executive vice president in CBRE’s Seattle office, said in a news release. “Seattle’s No. 2 ranking speaks to the resiliency of our labor pool and bodes well for future growth.”
