The rapidly evolving landscape of technology continues to shape the future, leading to an ever-growing demand for tech talent. While Silicon Valley remains at the forefront of technological innovation, other cities across North America are swiftly rising to prominence in terms of their tech labour force.
Tech talent refers to highly-skilled individuals who hold more than 20 technology-oriented roles that are crucial for driving innovation across various industry sectors. Importantly, these roles are not limited to the high-tech industry; they are prevalent across all sectors.
According to a report by CBRE, the top tech talent markets are typically characterized by a high level of educational achievement and a significant concentration of young individuals. Notably, 45 of the top 50 talent markets have an educational attainment level above national averages.
The California Bay Area, home to Silicon Valley, remains the largest tech hub in North America, with a staggering 407,810 tech workers. Furthermore, the Bay Area boasts the highest annual wage for U.S. tech talent at $185,425, followed by Seattle at $172,009 and Boston at $121,794.
On the other hand, Toronto is ranked as the third-largest tech hub in North America, closely trailing behind the San Francisco Bay Area and New York.
Canada has also attracted a substantial amount of tech talent, with cities like Vancouver, Calgary, and Waterloo experiencing the highest growth of tech workers over the past five years. This growth is largely attributed to the country’s immigration-friendly national policy and labour cost advantage, as reported by the Technology Councils of North America (TECNA) and Canada’s Tech Network (CTN).
Additionally, between April 2022 and March 2023, Canada welcomed 32,115 new workers, with the majority migrating from India and Nigeria.
Looking ahead, several emerging tech cities have the potential to draw in more tech talent in the coming years. These upcoming hubs are primarily concentrated in the U.S. Midwest and South, such as Boise (ID), Las Vegas (NE), Palm Bay (FL), and Birmingham (AL). Furthermore, Winnipeg and Halifax have also been identified as potential Canadian tech hubs.
Shifting focus, let’s discuss pure play cloud computing companies, which are firms that solely focus on cloud computing as their primary business. The global cloud computing market size was valued at $569 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow to $2.4 trillion by 2030.
Equinix, based in California, takes the top spot on the list of the largest pure play cloud computing companies. The company specializes in internet connections and data centres and is a prominent figure in the global colocation data centre market share, boasting 248 data centres in 31 countries.
Closely following is Arista Networks, another Silicon Valley-based company that designs and sells multilayer network switches for use in large-scale data centres.
While these pure play cloud computing companies may not be widely recognized among the general population, they have shown potential as lucrative investment options, with most of their stocks demonstrating solid double-digit annual returns.
In conclusion, the tech talent landscape in North America is undergoing significant evolution. While traditional hubs like Silicon Valley continue to hold sway, new cities are quickly emerging as appealing destinations for tech talent. Simultaneously, the rise of pure play cloud computing companies underscores the growing reliance on cloud technology across various industries. It will be fascinating to observe how these trends develop in the future.
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