Tech Talent Crossing the Border

Tech jobs in Canadian cities like Toronto and Vancouver are booming, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and a CBRE Group report.

The report showed the percent growth of tech hot spot cities in the U.S. and Canada between 2013 and 2018, with Toronto and Vancouver at the top of the list with a 54 percent and 43 percent growth rate, respectively. Other tech cities like San Francisco, New York City and Seattle also had sizable gains between 21 and 33 percent, however the trend clearly points to Canada as growing the fastest for high-skilled tech jobs.

One reason as to why Canada is growing much faster than the U.S. in tech jobs could be due to the Trump administration’s strict immigration policy. High-skilled tech workers from across the world are finding it much easier to get a visa in Canada, while the U.S. is prolonging the immigration process and even blocking tech workers from travel-banned countries from applying for visas.

For U.S. companies struggling to find skilled international tech workers, many are opening subsidiary offices in Canada to hire workers to work north of the U.S. and avoid the visa complications.

Still, the largest tech-employing cities remain in the U.S. and are led by San Francisco and New York with over 600,000 tech jobs. Toronto is making a strong case for top tech city in North America with nearly 230,000 tech jobs, however Vancouver has a lot of catching up to do with less than 75,000.