Calgary is North America’s fastest-growing tech talent market for the third consecutive year, reinforcing the city’s momentum as a destination for technology companies and skilled workers.
According to CBRE’s 2026 Scoring Tech Talent report, Calgary’s technology workforce expanded 56 per cent between 2022 and 2025—the highest growth rate among the 50 North American markets studied.
The city added 28,900 tech workers over the three-year period, pushing its talent pool above 80,000. Calgary also climbed two places to rank 15th overall among North America’s top tech talent markets.
Tech workers now account for 9.4 per cent of total employment in Calgary, compared with an average of 5.5 per cent across the markets in the report.
The gains come amid a broader shift in the North American technology workforce. CBRE found that Canadian tech talent employment grew 7.6 per cent in 2025, compared with 1.8 per cent in the United States. Calgary was also among just nine markets classified as net job creators, where tech employment growth outpaced the supply of new technology graduates.
Calgary’s expanding talent base is contributing to more than the technology sector itself. While 41 per cent of the city’s tech workers are employed by technology companies, the majority bring digital skills to industries including energy, financial services, agribusiness, and life sciences.
That crossover is helping established sectors adopt technologies such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and advanced data tools while creating opportunities for local startups to build products around real-world industry challenges.
“Calgary is leading North America in tech talent growth for the third straight year,” said Brad Parry, President and CEO of Calgary Economic Development. “That shows this isn’t a one-time surge—Calgary has built real momentum across our tech workforce.”
Parry added that companies and skilled workers are choosing Calgary because of the opportunities available in the city, with the growing talent base strengthening both the technology sector and industries undergoing digital transformation.
For companies weighing where to expand, Calgary’s deeper pool of workers comes with a cost advantage. CBRE estimates the annual operating cost of a 500-person technology company in the city at approximately US$40.4 million, the fifth-lowest total among the 50 markets studied.
Calgary is now home to more than 1,300 core technology companies spanning software-as-a-service, fintech, cybersecurity, industrial AI, and quantum computing. The combination of talent depth, lower operating costs, and access to customers across a diversified economy is helping companies build and scale from the city.
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