Chicago beats even Silicon Valley in tech-job growth
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Chicago was one of the fastest-growing cities for tech jobs coming out of the recession.
The number of tech jobs in the city rose 25.8 percent between 2010 and 2013, according to a report on the nation's top tech markets by commercial real estate firm CBRE. That was the third-best showing among the nation's 10 markets with the largest number of tech jobs.
Seattle had the highest tech-job growth in the top 10 at 37.3 percent, followed by Houston at 26.4 percent.
Chicago, the nation's third-most-populous city, had the fifth-most tech jobs of any U.S. city—133,170, according to CBRE, or about 3.5 percent of all jobs.
New York, the nation's largest city and home to the second-highest number of tech workers, registered a 10.2 percent increase in tech employment between 2010 and 2013. Los Angeles grew 13.6 percent.
In Northern California, the nation's cradle of tech, Silicon Valley and San Francisco are counted separately by CBRE. Silicon Valley, which has fourth-highest total of tech jobs, had 20.8 percent growth. San Francisco, which has the 12th-largest job total, logged 44 percent growth.
ANOTHER CHICAGO PLUS: CHEAPER COSTS
Washington, D.C., which has the biggest number of tech jobs in the U.S., grew 15.9 percent, CBRE said. Also in the top for total tech employment is Dallas-Fort Worth, which ranked third.
Technology has been a crucial source of growth, especially in real estate, in cities nationwide as the economy struggled to recover from the recession.
“We were organically growing for a number of years, in both early stage and growth-stage companies,” said Dan Lyne, a Chicago-based senior vice president in CBRE's global technology and media practice, said of the local market. “It wasn't just one stage of the economy.”
The fastest-growing category of job growth was computer support, database and systems. Although CBRE used different data, is report is similar to my findings last month regarding growth in tech jobs.
Chicago remains a bargain, with cheaper commercial rents than a dozen other markets. Rents here reached $27.79 per square foot at the end of 2014, compared with Manhattan, the nation's most expensive market, at $67.05, and San Francisco at $63.24.
The cost of living also remains low, coming in roughly even with the U.S. average. That compares with San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where these basic expenses are 50 percent higher than average. New York, Washington, D.C., Seattle and Los Angeles are 19 percent to 29 percent higher, too.
