New York Surpasses Bay Area as Largest U.S. Tech Talent Hub, CBRE Finds

A CBRE study released Tuesday indicates that the New York metropolitan area now holds the nation’s largest concentration of tech talent, with 394,300 workers last year, surpassing the San Francisco Bay Area’s 375,730. The Bay Area’s tech workforce contracted 6% between 2022 and 2025 as major firms such as Meta, Block, Amazon and Coinbase trimmed staff while refocusing on AI. Conversely, New York’s tech talent rose more than 8%, fueled by adoption of AI in financial services and the emergence of startups in Midtown South.

CBRE’s Colin Yasukochi said the Bay Area will remain a core AI hub, but growth spreads to other markets. Lauren Crowley Corrinet highlighted the city’s transit infrastructure and scale as attractive for both office space and workers. While the Bay Area still tops CBRE’s overall scorecard for salary and graduate output, New York ranks fourth, and other U.S. cities like Sacramento and Los Angeles showed modest gains.