New York's tech headcount tops San Francisco's for the first time

For the first time in the 13-year history of CBRE's annual tech talent report, New York employs more tech workers than San Francisco. That ranking flip will register with office landlords in both cities.

The New York metro counted 394,300 tech workers this year. That is an 8.4 percent gain over 2022. The jump added 30,640 jobs. San Francisco dropped 6 percent over the same stretch. Its total came to 375,730. Colin Yasukochi, CBRE's executive director of tech insights, told Commercial Observer that announced Bay Area layoffs did the damage while New York kept growing.

The totals also mask how much more concentrated tech is on the West Coast. Tech jobs are more than 10 percent of Bay Area employment. In New York the share is 4.2 percent. CBRE still ranks San Francisco first on its 13-metric talent score. The reason sits inside the mix: 61 percent of San Francisco tech workers are employed by the tech industry itself. New York's comparable figure is 34 percent. Another 21 percent work in finance, insurance and real estate. That diversification carried the city through the 2022 tech downturn.

Yasukochi said the artificial intelligence wave has substantially turned the picture around over the past year. New York also offers a deeper graduate pipeline and lower average software engineer wages. Both are draws for East Coast relocations.

Manhattan already has proof of that demand. Anthropic agreed in April to take the entire 330 Hudson Street building from AEW Capital Management. The lease covers 465,630 square feet, Commercial Observer reported. It arrives while office distress is setting records: CMBS delinquencies hit 8.89 percent in July. That was the worst since 2012, per PWD's tracking. One big AI tenant moves the leasing narrative.

San Francisco's talent pool remains deeper. AI hiring could shrink the headcount gap by next year's report. Office capital underwriting in either city should watch that number closely.