Nearly 300,000 technology jobs have been created in Canada over the past six years, according to a report from CompTIA, with nearly 1.4 million tech workers now in Canada. At an impact north of $110 billion, the tech industry represents more than 5% of Canada’s overall economy.
Vancouver boasts Canada’s third largest metropolitan area by tech employment, with a workforce nearly 150,000 strong, CompTIA’s “State of Workforce” found. The city gained almost 4,000 workers this year alone.
In fact, Vancouver has been home to Canada’s fastest-growing tech force for multiple years now.
Not only is Vancouver’s tech workforce large and rapidly expanding, but tech as a sector is also dominant in the region’s broader workforce: tech workers make up nearly 9% of Vancouver’s total workforce, the second highest rate in Canada behind Toronto (10%).
The strength of Vancouver’s ecosystem was reinforced by a recent report from Colliers exploring the evolving intersection of Canadian tech and commercial real estate. Despite cost-of-living concerns and cut-throat competition from nearby Seattle and Silicon Valley, the West Coast city is bucking the national trend of sky-high vacancy rates for tech offices.
“As one of Canada’s foremost economic hubs catering to a wide range of tech startups and well-established companies, Vancouver boasts a relatively healthy employment market that serves to accommodate both foreign and domestic professionals in innovative fields,” the 2023 “Canadian Tech Occupiers Guide” reads.
Vancouver has 4,500 local tech companies, with many international titans also claiming significant space in the city. For example, Salesforce occupies 43,000 square feet of office space downtown, while Apple uses 60,000 square feet.
Amazon, across several different buildings, leases about 1.5 million square feet in Vancouver, according to Colliers’ report.
The pandemic-fuelled shift to remote and hybrid work arrangements throughout the tech sector caused Vancouver’s total office vacancy rate to steadily increase in the past few quarters, returning to levels seen a decade ago. But while enduring a state of flux, the regional market remains in solid shape—at least relative to the rest of the country.
Vancouver retains the lowest vacancy rate market in Canada, with the tech sector posting the highest demand for office space over the last decade, according to Colliers. The city’s office lease vacancy rate of 8.6% in 2023 is below that of Toronto (11%), Montreal (15%), and Waterloo (13%), among others.
Across all of BC, there are 190,000 techies, who represent 6.5% of the workforce, and 6,400 tech firms.
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