Need a job in Calgary? Experts say this industry is exploding
If you’re looking for a career change, there’s an industry in Calgary that’s seen an explosion of job openings in the past few years.
A new report from CBRE has found Calgary shot up to the 17th spot (up from 21st last year) in its Scoring Tech Talent ranking. It is one of only three markets among the 50 North American cities included in the study to post higher percentages of tech talent job growth since 2018. Ottawa and the Waterloo Region were the two other spots to see an increase.
The ranking looked at tech industry job growth between 2018 and 2023 but also noted recent changes. In just the past year, Canada and the United States added 231,400 tech talent jobs.
CREB
In Calgary, jobs in the tech industry span across specializations from marketing and sales to administration and software development. If you’re looking for a gig that pays well, you might want to look at computer and information systems management, with a recorded $154,710 average salary. That career path is also exploding with the highest fifth-year growth on the list.
The number of software engineers employed in the tech industry in Calgary is well above the national average, with 65.2% employed in the city compared to 57.5% in the country.
The top three cities for tech talent are all based in the United States: The San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and New York Metro. Only one Canadian city slid into the top five, with Toronto moving Washington, DC, out of fourth place, coming in just above Austin, Texas.
Other Canadian markets fell in rankings. Vancouver dropped to #16 (from #8), Montreal fell to #19 (from #12), and Waterloo Region, despite its job growth, dropped to # 21 (from #18). Edmonton also fell to #47 on the list.
Halifax, Winnipeg, and London, Ontario, all received honourable mentions on the list.