For the second year in a row, London, Ont., has been named one of the top 10 up-and-coming markets for tech talent in North America.
The Forest City ranked eighth among the top emerging tech markets, according to the CBRE’s annual Scoring Tech Talent 2023 report, beating out Las Vegas, Winnipeg, and Buffalo, N.Y., among others. The only other Canadian city that ranked higher than London was Halifax, N.S., in the fourth spot.
The American-based commercial real estate services and investment firm reported that London saw a 79 per cent total tech growth across the city as well as a jump in total tech employment from 13,700 to 16,100 tech jobs in the last 12 months.
London came in last year at number 10.
With regard to the city’s recent ranking, TechAlliance of Southwestern Ontario said that “London continues to demonstrate great strides in the tech and innovation ecosystem.”
“This includes ambitious and talented students graduating from Western University and Fanshawe College, alongside connected incubators, accelerators, an innovation hub, and economic development organizations.”
In a statement, Christina Fox, chief executive officer at TechAlliance, shared her personal excitement about London climbing up the list.
“We see firsthand the sharp focus that London’s community of innovators, founders, industry leaders and tech talent bring to Canada’s innovation economy,” she wrote. “To be recognized in the top 10 emerging North American tech markets is a distinct advantage that further accelerates innovation, our global competitiveness, and ability to retain and attract more talent to the city.”
According to CBRE, emerging markets are based on “13 different measures of a region’s ability to attract and develop tech talent, including tech-job concentration, tech labor pool size, and real estate costs.”
Carmi Levy, a local tech analyst for the region, expressed to Global News that he’s been “singing London tech market praises for years.”
“The interesting thing about who we are as a tech sector is that we don’t tend to celebrate our successes as much as we should here in London,” he said. “We have incredibly innovative companies that are doing some amazing things out on the open market … and now we have the report from CBRE, a monster company for the industry, and for them to validate this really is special.”
Referencing London’s major jump in local tech employment and tech growth as a whole in the city, Levi said “no other city in North America is on that level.”
“In terms of funding, mentorship, advice, real estate, and other competitors who can share resources with you, all the ingredients are here,” he said. “It’s like a giant pot of goodness and now it’s really time to turn on the heart and see what happens.
“I think for Londoners, whether you’re interested in technology or not, we all deserve to celebrate.”
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