Calgary is ascending the tech hotspot ranking in North America, after a recent survey showed that it had jumped 6 spots to position 28 in a pool of 50 cities. The survey was conducted by Investment and real estate company CBRE.
Now, Calgary joins the ranks of giants like Detroit and Los Angeles, who have topped year-over-year.
The climb arose during the peak days of the pandemic, which suggests that the technology sector wasn’t affected by the crisis that resulted in many losing their jobs.
While Calgary has joined the ranks of top tech hotspots, CBRE’s managing director, Greg Kwong, said that the city still has a long way to go and should not sit back and relax.
However, he credited he rise to the efforts of post-secondary institutions for their contribution towards diversifying the city’s economy, which for a long time, has been energy reliant.
The city, and 7 others markets that were recognized in the survey, were noted for being quite affordable based on office rent and housing.
The survey’s report said that about 46700 persons were engaged in the tech sector last year. Most of these jobs were in software development and programming, together with computer support, systems and database employees.
CBRE’s talent officer, Sara Anhorn, noted that it has been quite exciting to Calgary diversify, and this helped lure in top talent. This is good news for the company because it won’t have to seek talent that far afield.
Kwong said they are expecting more exciting news in the days to come as even more technology firms seek to set up shop in Calgary.
