Atlanta Climbs to #5 on CBRE's Annual Tech Talent Scorecard

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Bridgette Bonner
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The Scoring Tech Talent report also ranks Atlanta as a top market for tech talent growth, millennial population change and educational attainment

ATLANTA, Ga. (July 18, 2017) – Atlanta moved up four spots to claim a spot as a top 5 market on CBRE’s Tech Talent Scorecard, part of its fifth annual Scoring Tech Talent Report.

The report, which can be viewed in detail by market in the interactive Tech Talent Analyzer, finds that strong demand for talent that offer specific skills, such as software development, coupled with a tight labor supply, is driving companies to locate in markets with the largest concentrations of high quality talent. And while value is a key driver when it comes to choosing an office location, companies are showing that they are willing to pay a premium to access the highest quality tech talent.

“Since the cost of talent is the largest expense for most firms, the quality of that tech talent is becoming one of their most important considerations. The skills of the available labor pool do not appear to align with available jobs, causing a structural impediment to growth for companies across North America,” said Colin Yasukochi, director of research and analysis for CBRE.

Tech Talent Scorecard

The top 10-ranked cities on the Tech Talent Scorecard were all large markets, each with a tech labor pool of more than 50,000. The San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Toronto, Raleigh-Durham, Austin, Boston and Dallas/Ft. Worth made up the top 10.

The rankings for the Tech Talent Scorecard are determined based on 13 unique metrics including tech talent supply, growth, concentration, cost, completed tech degrees, industry outlook for job growth, and market outlook for both office and apartment rent cost growth.

Helping to elevate its ranking on the Scorecard, Atlanta stood out in the report in a number of key areas:

• Atlanta was the #3 large market (by percent change) for tech labor growth. With a growth rate of 47.6 percent from 2011 to 2016, it fell behind only Raleigh-Durham (51.3 percent) and the San Francisco Bay Area (49.9 percent). Fueling the labor growth, Atlanta added 43,000 tech jobs and has seen a 30 percent increase in tech degree completions since 2011.
• Atlanta stands out as a strong tech-job creator and tech talent attractor, with more than 20, 500 more tech jobs than graduates, behind only San Francisco, Dallas and Seattle. 
• With a rate of 48.9 percent, Atlanta ranked #3 among the top markets for education attainment, behind Seattle and Washington, D.C.
• Out of the large tech talent markets, Atlanta attained the fifth-highest increase of millennials with a 9.3 percent increase since 2010. This equates to 19.2 percent of total growth in a population of 463,875.
• Atlanta has the 18th lowest rent-to-tech wage (14.4 percent), meaning those employed in the tech industry in Atlanta spend less of their earnings on rent than those in other large markets such as Boston (24.9 percent), San Francisco (27.2 percent), Los Angeles (27.8 percent) or New York (30.8 percent). Additionally, Atlanta saw the eighth highest increase in tech wages (15.7 percent) from 2011 to 2016.

“As demonstrated by this report, Atlanta is a tech talent and education rich city,” said Christian Devlin, CBRE’s Atlanta Tech & Media Practice leader. “A nearly 48 percent increase in tech talent since 2011 is incredible and supports the city’s jump in rankings by four places. Atlanta is producing more tech jobs than people with tech degrees, strengthening the case for talent to remain here instead of seeking jobs elsewhere.”

“Atlanta’s strong base of fast growing tech talent is a key piece of a larger puzzle suggesting Atlanta is in a strong place as a tech ecosystem,” Devlin added. “One of the other factors worth highlighting is the increasing interaction between Atlanta’s large corporates and the tech and startup communities, evidenced by the launch of Tech Square Venture’s Engage, a venture that is both an investment fund and tech accelerator, backed by 10 major Atlanta based corporations.  While we have already seen incredible growth in Atlanta’s tech sector, the combination of trends like this along with Atlanta’s strong and growing tech talent based suggest that Atlanta may well still be in the early stages of its rise as a prominent tech city, and that we likely have some very exciting things ahead of us in the coming years.”

To view the full report, please click here.  To view individual markets statistics and rankings, including rankings on the Scorecard, click to access the Tech Talent Analyzer.

About CBRE Group, Inc.

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2016 revenue).  The company has more than 75,000 employees (excluding affiliates), and serves real estate investors and occupiers through approximately 450 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide.  CBRE offers a broad range of integrated services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services.  Please visit our website at www.cbre.com.