Chicago was beat by Orlando, which came in at No. 1 for growing its tech workforce by 14.1 percentage points. San Diego, came in at No. 2 for growing its tech labor pool by 10.2 points. Among the top 10, Chicago was followed by Cleveland, Long Island, N.Y., Denver, Portland, Los Angeles, Detroit and Hartford, Conn.
Contributing to the growing talent pool is the increasing number of tech degrees that Chicagoans are receiving. Tech degree completions in Chicago have grown by 36.9 percent from 2012 to 2017 with more than 7,300 tech degrees being completed in 2017, according to CBRE’s data.
Chicago is one of the top cities for attracting talent from the Big 10 university system, which includes some of the nation’s top computer science and engineering schools.
“Chicago’s tech market has seen a lot of organic growth and a tremendous amount of growth from coastal companies expanding here, particularly firms from California,” said Brad Serot, vice chairman of CBRE, in a statement.