A recently released CBRE report has identified Calgary as one of the fastest-growing tech talent cities worldwide, giving Calgary an outsized presence in the city’s GDP from tech firms.
Those figures in Scoring Tech Talent 2025, released on Sept. 9, show that Calgary’s tech sector has grown to 7.9 per cent of the economy, well above the continental average of 5.3 per cent.
Amont large tech markets of over 50,000 employed in the sector, Calgary also posted a blistering 61.1 per cent in tech jobs from 2021 to 2024, at 64,600 employed. That growth figure was the highest in all of the North American cities looked at by CBRE.
Brad Parry, CEO of Calgary Economic Development, said that the latest statistics reinforce the hard work that has been undertaken by the tech community over the past several years.
“The fact that we’re 17th now among the top 50 is huge. I mean, when you see job growth happen at 61 per cent from ’21 to ’24, I mean that’s huge,” he said.
He said that growth in other parts of the sector, like 25 per cent of the employment rate being women and 16 per cent being from under-represented communities, was also an improvement towards a more diverse tech economy.
“It’s just saying that we’ve got the opportunities for people to really build some really cool stuff here and do some amazing work,” said Parry.
The CBRE report found that Canadian tech firms were largely more diverse than their American counterparts.
The CBRE report also found that 49.1 per cent of tech talent was actually employed in the tech industry, placing Calgary fifth on the rankings behind Austin, Vancouver, Seattle, and San Francisco.
Parry said those figures were representative of the industry growing in Calgary, where firms are looking to set up shop in the city either by moving their headquarters or setting up branch offices to take advantage of the tech talent pool.
“the first question we always get is not about the business environment or about of the taxes, it’s about the talent: ‘if I come, will you have the talent?; Matter of fact, I was speaking to a company out of Victoria who’s now thinking about relocating their office… and that’s the question they had. Like, ‘I’m seeing some really good talent, and this is why Calgary is on my map,’” he said.
Parry said another example was from a firm in Denver that was looking to near-shore by opening an office in Calgary.
“This sends that message out there that there are things happening and companies will start to come back with talent,” he said.
Opportunity for workers, especially young Calgarians
Parry said that because of the growth of the tech ecosystem in Calgary, the nature of who has been moving to the city has been shifting.
“Three or four years ago, people were coming here with a job already in hand. I think what you’ve seen is the attractiveness, the livability, the quality of life, the growth of the sector–people are now coming here and looking for that job,” he said.
“So, I think you’re seeing a little imbalance right now because of that. People are coming to the marketplace and maybe haven’t secured a position yet, and so that’s where I see maybe a little bit of those numbers growing. But what I’ve seen and what I’m hearing in the community, there’s a lot of companies right now that are picking up some amazing talent, and I think hopefully we’ll see that number rebound in the short term.”
That employment strategy, said Parry, was also working towards solving part of the growing crisis in youth unemployment that has seen double-digit unemployment rates for young people and recent graduates in Alberta.
CBRE wrote in its report that four cities were creating more tech jobs than graduates in 2024.
“Dallas-Ft. Worth, Calgary, Toronto and the San Francisco Bay Area created substantially more tech jobs than college tech-degree graduates last year, while Washington, D.C., Boston and Los Angeles-Orange County produced more tech-degree graduates than tech jobs,” read the report.
Parry said that CED was working to connect talent with employers through the Agile Program and the TalentED YYC Programs to connect interns and new graduates with employers.
“Helping our [small and medium business] understand the value of that, I think is key to get those kids that hands-on learning, so they understand what kind of career do I want to really get into, and what’s that opportunity from them in the long term,” Parry said.
Connecting companies with tech talent alongside other needs was what CED would continue to do to grow the tech sector, said Parry.
“We really want to make sure that our local companies are getting a chance to build, grow and scale, and find markets for their products and services.”
Liked it? Take a second to support Aryn Toombs on Patreon!
