Vancouver ranked one of the fastest-growing tech talent destinations in North America

CBRE, a global commercial real estate services and investment firm, listed Vancouver as one of the top 10 cities across North America for tech job growth, moving the city up three spots since the last edition of the report.

Bolstered by a 63% growth of its tech labour pool over the past five years, Vancouver saw the highest percentage growth of all 50 North American markets measured in the 2022 Scoring Tech Talent analysis. The city reported adding 44,460 new tech jobs within a five-year period.

The top 10 fastest-growing tech talent destinations include:

1. San Francisco Bay Area
2.  Seattle
3. Toronto
4. Washington, DC
5. New York Metro
6. Austin
7. Boston
8. Vancouver
9. Dallas-Fort Worth Area
10. Denver

Among the full list of 50 markets, 11 Canadian cities made the index for North America’s top-performing destinations for tech talent.Geographically, Vancouver and Toronto indicated the largest tech talent workforce gains in 2021, both above Canada’s 7% year-over-year national growth rate.

The top 50 contenders in the US and Canada were ranked according to their competitive advantages and appeal to both employers and tech talent employees.

The Scoring Tech Talent report is a comprehensive analysis of labour market conditions, cost and quality in North America for highly skilled tech workers, providing insights into the quality of tech workers, their demographics and diversity and how tech talent growth patterns are impacting cities and real estate markets.

What universities can do to support BC’s tech talent pipeline

Tech talent markets are characterized by high concentrations of college-educated workers, major universities producing tech graduates and large populations of young people.

The Scoring Tech Talent report revealed that Vancouver, BC was one of the standout markets for tech talent job creation, but the city was found to have a particular area of concern – more tech talent jobs were being added than graduates.

In light of this issue, University Canada West released a report examining the state of BC’s tech industry and what universities can do to help fuel the province’s tech talent pipeline.

The whitepaper, Fuelling B.C.’s Tech Talent Pipeline: The role of universities, explores how universities can help address the talent crisis in the Vancouver tech industry.

The report revealed that universities can help build the skills of tomorrow, bring academia and industry together sooner, reimagine how students learn and are assessed, create solutions for upskilling and reskilling and change the narrative.

With their shared resources and capital, universities can provide a diversity of educational opportunities to build the workforce that the top Vancouver tech companies need.

For more information or to read the full report, visit ucanwest.ca/tech-talent-pipeline.

How University Canada West is supporting the tech talent pipeline

To support the tech talent pipeline for top Vancouver startups, University Canada West has partnered with leading business and tech companies, such as Salesforce, Amazon, Shopify, Facebook and many others to incorporate their latest technology and expertise into its degree programs, including the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program courses.

University Canada West also offers several practical micro-credential courses focused on technology, business and innovation to help the talent pipeline gain valuable and specific skills in a short amount of time.

The University offers a total of nine micro-credentials, including Blockchain Project Management Certificate Program, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Certified Digital Marketing Professional, Social Media Marketing, Data and Web Analytics, Online E-Commerce, Introduction to Supply Management and Logistics, Introduction to Project Management and Mastering Blockchain, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency.