New York City has surpassed the San Francisco Bay Area as the largest tech talent market in North America for the first time, according to a new report from commercial real estate firm CBRE. The New York metropolitan area's tech workforce grew to 394,300, while the Bay Area's contracted to 375,730.
This shift is attributed to a 6% decline in the Bay Area's tech talent workforce between 2022 and 2025, fueled by layoffs, while New York's tech labor pool grew by over 8% in the same period. New York's growth has been bolstered by strong tech hiring in other industries, particularly in the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sectors. Despite the change in total job numbers, the Bay Area still ranks first in CBRE's broader "Tech Talent Scorecard," which measures factors like talent concentration and quality.