- New York had 394,300 tech talent jobs, compared with 375,730 in the San Francisco Bay Area. [1] - The San Francisco Bay Area remained No. 1 in CBRE’s indexed ranking, which measures 13 labor-market and business conditions. [1] - AI-skilled tech talent in the U.S. and Canada grew 45% over the past year to 751,000 workers.
[[1]](https://www.cbre.ca/press-releases/rapid-growth-ai-related-jobs-boosts-top-markets-cbre-annual-scoring-tech-talent-report)
New York City has surpassed the San Francisco Bay Area as the largest U.S. tech talent market by headcount, according to CBRE’s 2026 Scoring Tech Talent report. New York had 394,300 tech talent jobs as of the report’s latest measurement, compared with 375,730 in the Bay Area. [[1]](https://www.cbre.ca/press-releases/rapid-growth-ai-related-jobs-boosts-top-markets-cbre-annual-scoring-tech-talent-report)
A headcount lead, not a ranking reversal #
The result does not mean New York leads CBRE’s overall competitiveness index. The San Francisco Bay Area held the No. 1 position, followed by Seattle, Toronto, New York Metro, Austin and Washington, D.C. The index analyzes 75 U.S. and Canadian markets, ranks the top 50, and weighs 13 measures including tech-talent concentration, labor costs, education, graduate supply and research-and-development investment. [1]
CBRE defines tech talent as highly skilled workers across more than 20 technology-oriented occupations, including software developers, hardware engineers, and computer and information systems managers. [1]
AI is driving the labor-market shift #
AI-related roles accounted for 31% of U.S. tech-talent job listings in June 2026, compared with 11% in 2022, according to CBRE’s analysis of Lightcast data. Lightcast’s AI classification is skills-based and includes terms associated with machine learning, neural networks, natural-language processing, robotics and related applications. [2]
The number of U.S. and Canadian tech workers with AI skills rose 45% over the past year to 751,000. New York and the Bay Area each added more than 20,000 AI-skilled workers since mid-2025, although the Bay Area remained the largest AI employment center, with 98,699 workers compared with New York’s 67,949. [1]
Companies mentioned #
Further sources #
[1] CBRE, “Rapid Growth of AI-Related Jobs Strengthens Top North American Markets i… ↗
[[2] Lightcast, “The Lightcast Approach to AI,” describing its skills-based Artifici… ↗](https://lightcast.io/our-data/approach-to-ai)
[[3] CNBC Tech, “New York unseats San Francisco as the top market for tech talent, C… ↗](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/21/new-york-san-francisco-tech-talent-cbre.html)
[[4] Commercial Observer, “New York City’s Technology Labor Market Has Surpassed San… ↗](https://commercialobserver.com/2026/08/new-york-city-san-francisco-technology-labor-market-cbre/)
The stories that matter, in one email. Free — unsubscribe anytime.