Toronto’s tech scene is so hot the city created more jobs than the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., combined last year, while leapfrogging New York in a ranking of “talent markets.”

Toronto was the fastest-growing tech-jobs market in 2017, according to CBRE Group Inc.’s latest annual survey, released last Tuesday. The city saw 28,900 tech jobs created, 14 percent more than in 2016, for a total of more than 241,000 workers, up 52 percent over the past five years, CBRE said. Downtown, tech accounted for more than a third of demand for office space.

Canada’s biggest city took fourth place in “tech talent,” a broad measure of competitiveness, pushing New York down a notch and coming in just after the Bay Area, Seattle and the U.S. capital. CBRE ranked 50 markets across North America, using measures such as talent supply, concentration, education and cost as well as outlooks for job and rent growth for both offices and apartments.

The real estate services firm cited some 5 million technology workers in the U.S. and more than 830,000 in Canada, across all sectors.

For employers, combined labor and occupancy costs increased in every market, by 13 percent even in the least expensive one, Montreal.

“Companies looking to house operations are putting serious thought to locating in Canada,” Paul Morassutti, executive managing director at CBRE Canada, said in a statement accompanying the report. Toronto is among the best values for tech firms, he said, citing cheaper labor and real estate and a well-educated workforce. The U.S. Midwest offers good value as well, the report noted.

A 500-worker company requiring 75,000 square feet (7,000 square meters) of office space can expect total annual costs, in U.S. dollars, to range from $27.6 million in Montreal to $32.2 million in Ottawa, with Toronto in the middle at $30.2 million. The costs in Rochester, New York, the cheapest U.S. market of those CBRE studied, amount to $36.3 million, while the Bay Area adds up to $57.4 million.

“The forces that are driving innovation and technology are really in the early stages here,” Morassutti said by phone. “When it comes to overall costs, even if you assume upward pressure on office rents, housing and salaries, our major markets still constitute a significant bargain to the U.S.”

To measure a market’s growth potential, CBRE looked at the concentration of technology labor as a percentage of total employment. Here the winner was Ottawa, Canada’s capital, at 11.2 percent, more than three times the U.S. national average of 3.5 percent. Toronto came in third, at 8.9 percent.

“Ottawa is shedding its government-town image. It is home to over 1,700 technology companies and employs over 70,000 tech-talent employees,” Shawn Hamilton, managing director of CBRE Ottawa, said in the statement. “In the last five years, urban tech has grown to be the second-largest user group in downtown Ottawa, bigger than the accounting and legal sectors combined.”

U.S. markets rising in the study’s ranks include Cleveland and Columbus, in Ohio, and San Diego.

多伦多的科技行业是如此火热，以至于这座城市去年创造的科技类工作机会超过了旧金山湾区、西雅图和华盛顿的总和，它的“人才市场”排名也一跃超过了纽约。

世邦魏理仕（CBRE Group）上周二公布的最新年度调查结果显示，多伦多是2017年增长最快的科技类就业市场，创造了28900个科技类工作机会，同比上升14%；科技类就业者总数突破24.1万，五年来增长了52%。在市区，逾三分之一的办公空间需求都来自科技公司。

作为加拿大最大城市，多伦多在“科技人才”方面，或者说在一个综合性竞争力指标上压过了纽约，紧随旧金山湾区、西雅图和华盛顿之后。世邦魏理仕比较了北美50多个市场，衡量标准包括人才供给、集中度、受教育程度、成本、就业前景以及写字楼和公寓租金增速等。

这家房地产服务机构在美国调查了约500万科技类就业者，在加拿大调查的人数超过83万，覆盖了各个行业。

对用人单位来说，所有市场的劳动力和场地成本都上升了，就算在成本最低的蒙特利尔，涨幅也达到了13%。

世邦魏理仕加拿大分公司执行董事总经理保罗·莫拉苏蒂在和调查报告一起发布的声明中表示：“寻找物业服务的公司正在认真考虑在加拿大安家。”他还说，多伦多对科技公司来说是性价比最高的城市之一，因为这里的劳动力和房地产成本较低，就业者受教育程度高。报告指出，美国中西部的性价比也很高。

一家500人的公司需要7.5万平方英尺（7000平方米）办公场地，年度总成本最低的是蒙特利尔，为2760万美元，最高的渥太华达到3229万，多伦多的成本处于二者之间，为3020万美元。在世邦魏理仕调查的美国市场中，成本最低的是纽约州罗切斯特市，为3630万美元，旧金山湾区的成本则达到5740万美元。

莫拉苏蒂在电话采访中说：“这里的创新和科技推动力真的处于初期阶段。但说到整体成本，就算假设写字楼租金、住房成本和薪酬面临上升压力，我们的主要市场仍比美国的便宜得多。”

为衡量这些市场的增长潜力，世邦魏理仕比较了科技类就业者的集中度，或者说他们在所有就业人口中占的百分比。在这方面，胜出的是加拿大首都渥太华，它的科技类就业者集中度为11.2%，是美国全国平均值3.5%的三倍以上。多伦多的科技类就业者集中度为8.9%，位居第三。

世邦魏理仕渥太华分公司董事总经理肖恩·汉密尔顿在一份声明中称：“渥太华正在摆脱行政小镇形象。这里有1700多家科技公司，雇佣了7万多科技类人才。五年来，城市科技公司已经成为渥太华市中心的第二大用户群体，超过了会计和法律行业之和。”

本次调查中排名上升的美国城市包括俄亥俄州的克利夫兰市和哥伦布市以及加州圣迭戈市。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林