Long Island Lands Among Top 50 Markets in North America for Tech Talent

Long Island ranks #43 on CBRE’s Tech Talent Scorecard, part of its annual Scoring Tech Talent Report, which ranks 50 North American markets according to their ability to attract and grow tech talent.

 

Tech labor concentration – or the percentage of total employment – is an influential factor in how “tech-centric” the market is and its growth potential. Long Island’s tech-talent labor pool is the 41^st largest nationally at 33,616 workers, which amounts to 2.5% of the Island’s overall workforce.

“Tech occupations on Long Island experienced a big five-year increase in employment at 17.4%" said Tricia Shay, Senior Managing Director at CBRE’s Melville office. “The sustained growth of the sector’s job opportunities and wages positions Long Island as an attractive option for tech talent.”

 

The top five markets for tech talent in 2020 were the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington DC, Seattle, Toronto, and New York, all large markets with a tech labor pool of more than 100,000. Long Island slipped to 43^rd this year, but pulled ahead of locally competing Rochester, N.Y.

The report outlines how tech-talent jobs are positioned to weather COVID-19 and related shutdowns and the ensuing recession because, more than ever, companies across all industries need the technical skills that this talent base offers. Many tech products and services such as streaming, remote communications and social media now are in higher demand to support remote work and social distancing. Tech employment has shown it can withstand economic shocks: In the 2008-2010 recession, tech-talent employment declined by 0.5 percent while overall U.S. employment registered a 5.5 percent drop.

CBRE’s Tech Talent Scorecard is 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.

 

“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,” said Colin Yasukochi, Executive Director of CBRE’s Tech Insights Center. “Markets that have strong innovation infrastructure – leading universities and high concentrations of tech jobs – will lead the next growth cycle.”

 

Long Island stood out in the report in a number of other key areas:

·       4,986 new tech jobs have been added on Long Island between 2015-2019.

·       Tech degree completion grew by 47% between 2014-2018 to 2,788.

·       39% of Long Island’s labor force attained a bachelor’s degree or higher.

·       Long Island ranked in the middle of the pack at number 24 for estimated one-year costs of operating a tech company at $42 million.

 

Top 10 tech talent markets:

 

RANK (2019)	MARKET	SCORE
1	SF Bay Area, CA	82.56
2	Washington, D.C.	67.39
3	Seattle, WA	66.36
4	Toronto, ON	64.34
5	New York, NY	64.01
6	Austin, TX	60.30
7	Denver, CO	59.89
8	Boston, MA	59.61
9	Atlanta, GA	58.78
10	Raleigh-Durham, NC	56.29

 

View the full report here. To view individual market statistics and rankings, including rankings on the Scorecard, access CBRE’s Tech Talent Analyzer.