Ottawa ranks #2 in Canada when it comes to tech talent: report

In a report released Monday by the real estate company CBRE, Ottawa has achieved the second best rank when it comes to Canadian tech talent markets.

Other Canadian markets in the report include Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Overall Ottawa ranked 13th out of 50 cities and Toronto ranked fourth. Topping the list are the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington D.C.

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According to the report, Ottawa has had some of the highest growth in job talent and the job pool has increased by 15.9 per cent since 2012. According to Statistics Canada, Ottawa has 70,600 tech professionals in the job pool as of 2017 with an average income of $88,000 per year.

“Tech talent job growth has accelerated in 23 of 50 markets, with notable surges in Ottawa, Los Angeles and Madison, Wisconsin,” said CBRE in the report.

CBRE gave Ottawa a momentum gain score of 25.2, which means that the rate of job growth was faster during 2016 and 2017, compared to 2014 and 2015.

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According to the CBRE, Tech firms in Ottawa occupy more space than legal and accounting firms combined. These tech companies include Shopify, Klipfolio and Survey Monkey.

According to the report, the Canadian city with the most tech growth was Toronto, which has gained 82,100 tech positions since 2012. Ottawa gained around 9,700 in that same time.