Toronto Top Canadian Tech Market, Waterloo Fastest-Growing
Toronto remains the undisputed Canadian leader in tech companies and talent, according to a new CBRE report.
Toronto now has 212,500 jobs related to the tech industry, representing 8% of its total jobs, and 27.4% of all tech jobs in Canada, the 2017 Scoring Canadian Tech Talent report found. By comparison, second place Montreal was home to 16.6% of the Canadian tech workforce.
Overall, the report ranks Toronto the top Canadian tech talent market, based on 14 metrics, including tech talent supply, growth, concentration, cost, completed degrees, industry outlook for job growth and market outlook for both office and apartment rent cost growth. Toronto’s proximity to U.S. markets, strong labour pool, common language and affordable rent has made it an ideal tech hub, according to the report.
Toronto also remains a magnet for tech employers and employees. Between 2011 and 2016, the city added 51,300 jobs in the tech sector, a 31.8% increase.
The Waterloo Region is the fastest-growing tech market, adding 8,400 tech jobs over the same five-year period for a 65.6% growth rate. That is the second-fastest rate of tech labour pool growth in North America after Charlotte, North Carolina, at 77.1%.
“Waterloo Region continues to show its strength as one of Canada’s top tech markets and a major engine of innovation for the Canadian economy,” CBRE Canada Executive Managing Director Paul Morassutti said. “Not only is it the fastest-growing over the five-year period, it is also the fastest-growing market year-over-year, adding 5,600 jobs alone in 2016, an increase of almost a third in a single year.”
In Toronto, the tech industry remains dominantly male, with only 24% of all tech jobs held by women. Across Canada, women make up 22% of the tech workforce, a number that has remained static for the last five years.
As a whole, Canada added 138,300 tech jobs between 2011 and 2016. That is an increase of 21.7%, with 34,500 of those jobs added in 2016 alone.
Tech jobs now represent 5% of the Canadian workforce. Breaking that number down further, 37.4% of tech employees work in computer support, database and systems, 28.4% in technology and engineering, 25.4% are software developers and programmers and 8.9% are computer and information systems managers.
