Waterloo Ranked #1 Opportunity Market for Tech Talent

Waterloo Ranked #1 Opportunity Market for Tech Talent

CBRE Report shows Waterloo’s renowned tech sector grew a staggering 51% in just 5 years

CBRE has named Waterloo as the top opportunity market in Canada and the United States for tech talent in their 2020 Scoring Tech Talent report. The report, which is published annually, examines the availability and growth of tech talent across the Canadian and US market, and how talent informs decision making for companies, particularly around location.

CBRE notes that tech talent is one of the most resilient professional fields, and highlights that the people and companies leading North American innovation are poised to support economic recovery and transformation in a post-COVID-19 world.

Waterloo’s renowned tech sector showed a staggering 51% growth in just 5 years, with the highest number of tech degree graduates in 2018 of any of the top 25 emerging markets. The report highlights that the top ranked cities are dominated by educational institutions. With two top ranked universities, including Canada’s Most Innovative University, and one of the fastest growing colleges in Canada, it’s easy to see why Waterloo is such a dominant force. The University of Waterloo’s globally leading Coop Program plays a particularly important role in Waterloo’s talent strength, with over 21,000 students participating annually.

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The presence of global tech giants like OpenText, SAP, and BlackBerry, fast growing scale-ups like TextNow, Miovision, and Canada’s latest unicorn, ApplyBoard, alongside hundreds of startups and some of the world’s top incubators, make Waterloo the perfect place for companies to develop, nurture and retain top technical talent.

Waterloo’s proximity to Toronto is also critical. Ranked #4 in the world in CBRE’s report and experiencing the highest “brain gain” of any community outside Silicon Valley. The high degree of connectivity between the two communities is a key factor in why so many leading companies choose Waterloo.  

To learn more the Waterloo ecosystem, get in touch with us.

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