DAYTON NAMED TOP CITY FOR TECH TALENT GROWTH, RANKING #1 ON CBRE’S ANNUAL LIST OF UP-AND-COMING TECH MARKETS

Dayton, OH. – July 13, 2021 – Dayton ranked first on CBRE’s list of up-and-coming North American tech-talent markets on CBRE’s annual Scoring Tech Talent report, which ranks 75 U.S. and Canadian markets according to their ability to attract and grow tech talent. Dayton’s total tech employment has grown by 31 percent in the past five years and its tech wages increased by 11 percent.  

The report found that most of these emerging tech markets were concentrated in the Midwest and South and had expanded their tech talent growth by double digit percentages in the past five years.

“There’s been an increase in tech jobs and companies in Dayton, which can be attributed to several different factors,” said Matt Arnovitz, Senior Associate with CBRE in Dayton. “Dayton is a very vibrant city with direct talent pipelines from the University of Dayton, Wright State, Miami of Ohio, University of Cincinnati and Ohio State in Columbus. There’s a high quality of life here with a lower cost of living for people who don’t necessarily want to live in major hubs like San Francisco or New York. We expect to see the amount of tech workers and company in the region continue to grow.”   

These up-and-coming markets are separate from the 50 larger tech markets that CBRE’s report ranks in its Tech Talent Scorecard. In contrast, the ‘Next 25’ up-and-coming markets are ranked by a narrower set of criteria than the top 50, including tech talent supply, wages, tech-talent concentration, recent tech talent growth rates and their outlook.

Numerous indicators underscore the resilience of tech talent during COVID-19. These occupations registered job growth of 0.8 percent in 2020 in the U.S. while non-tech occupations declined by 5.5 percent. Software developers and programmers were the most in demand tech-job category last year, adding 85,000 U.S. jobs for a 4.8 percent growth rate from a year earlier. Beyond the tech industry itself, those that added tech workers last year include financial activities, professional & business services, and government.

“Many factors already are in place to fuel strong tech-talent job growth this year and beyond, including demand for tech to facilitate continued remote work, robust e-commerce growth and streaming services,” said Todd Husak, Managing Director of CBRE’s Tech & Media Practice Group. “Big tech markets will gain from their established pipelines of tech graduates and many workers’ return to city centers. Smaller markets will reap benefits from their cost advantages in labor and real estate as well as the tech industry’s embrace of remote work for certain employees.”

The leaderboard of the ‘Next 25’ markets is filled with markets that have posted double-digit growth in tech jobs since 2013.

Dayton also stood out in the report in other key areas:

• Tech wages averaged $90,125 in Dayton last year, an increase of 11 percent since 2015.
• The narrower category of software-developer wages averaged $92,548 in Dayton last year, up 19.2 percent over the past five years.
• Tech degree completions in Dayton totaled 1,655 in 2019.

To download the report, click here.