CBRE announced Wednesday that Newark has ranked No. 25 on its Tech Talent Scorecard, part of its annual Scoring Tech Talent Report, which ranks the 50 North American markets on their ability to attract and grow tech talent.
The concentration of tech labor (or the percentage of total employment) influences how “tech-centric” the market is and its potential for growth, CBRE said. The Tech Talent Scorecard is determined based on 13 metrics, such as tech talent supply, growth, concentration, cost, completed degrees, industry outlook for job growth and market outlook for rent costs.
Newark ranked in the middle of the pack due to its tech-talent labor pool of 53,901 workers, or 4.5% of the overall workforce. The national average is 3.7%. Most of these workers are in software development, computer programming and database system management.
“Newark remains one of the strongest markets in the Northeast for tech-related businesses given the percentage of young, highly educated people in the city as well as the competitive rents and cost of living when compared to other major markets in the region,” Jon Meisel of CBRE said. “Given the growth of both technology and logistics over the past few years, and especially during the global pandemic, Newark’s technology sector is well positioned to continue its upward trajectory.”
The city has a rent-to-wage ratio of 19.4%, since the average apartment costs $21,074 per year to rent and the average annual tech wage is $108,602. In New York, those numbers are $48,508 and $110,591 (a ratio of 43.9%), respectively.
In 2018, about 2,900 tech degrees were completed in Newark, a 58.4% increase from 2014.
Here are the Top 10 markets for tech talent in 2020 (labor pool of 100,000+):
- San Francisco Bay Area;
- Washington, D.C.;
- Seattle, Washington;
- Toronto, Canada;
- New York, New York;
- Austin, Texas;
- Denver, Colorado;
- Boston, Massachusetts;
- Atlanta, Georgia;
- Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.
“We expect that most tech-talent markets and professions will thrive after the pandemic subsides, and many that facilitate remote work and tech services such as e-commerce, social media and streaming services may have even greater growth opportunities accelerated by the COVID-19 disruption,” Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE’s Tech Insights Center, said.
“Markets that have strong innovation infrastructure – leading universities and high concentrations of tech jobs – will lead the next growth cycle.”
