Los Angeles A Top Market For Tech Job Growth
Los Angeles County is one of North America's top markets for high-tech software/service employment growth, increasing those jobs by 20% in 2015-16, up from 6.7% growth in 2013-14. Los Angeles County added 12,026 tech jobs in the past two years, for a total of 72,226.
That is the third-fastest growth in North America last year, CBRE's Tech-30 report said, behind Montreal and Pittsburgh. Charlotte and Toronto rounded out the top five for momentum.
LA is faring well in other office metrics, with average asking rents up 11% to $37.08 from Q2 2015 to Q2 2017. The vacancy rate as of Q2 2017 was 14%, with 2.1M SF under construction. Santa Monica, the area's top tech submarket, had average asking rents of $71.28.
“Downtown is one of the submarkets that is experiencing a lot of the benefits from the growth in the tech sector,” CBRE Senior Vice President John Zanetos said. “The reason why areas such as downtown are seeing this kicked-up interest are the massive rent increases in places such as Santa Monica. Submarkets such as downtown that offer a centralized location for their workforce, lots of housing, and amenities — downtown now boasts 20 of the city’s top restaurants — are benefiting greatly.”
LA benefits from spending on original media content for tech companies, such as Netflix, which is driving growth, according to the report. Millions of square feet of positive net absorption have been from a few major tech and internet media companies, which is a trend the report's authors expect to continue.
