New York Leads Tech Talent by Headcount
For the first time in CBRE’s 13-year analysis, New York has overtaken the San Francisco Bay Area in raw tech-talent headcount.
CBRE places New York at 394,300 tech workers, ahead of the Bay Area’s 375,730.
That creates a lead of about 18,570 workers, establishing New York as the largest tech-talent market in North America by worker count.
The comparison covers metro-scale labor markets rather than downtown districts alone.
That framing matters because urban ecosystems and commuting patterns shape where employers recruit and where workers cluster across a region.
The milestone reflects a headcount shift, not a broader claim about every market metric.
At the same time, New York’s broader housing market is facing a 30% listing drop, adding pressure to affordability and competition across the region.
Coverage consistently presents the change as a workforce-size breakthrough within CBRE’s 75-market U.S. and Canada study.
The shift was fueled in part by Wall Street hiring alongside tech contractions across Northern California.
What the 2025 Tech Talent Numbers Show
In the 2025 data, the market split became clearer. New York led in raw tech-talent headcount, while San Francisco held stronger positions in broader competitive metrics.
CBRE’s tracking across 50 major markets showed a divide between workforce size and composite strength. New York reached 394,300 workers, 18,570 above San Francisco’s 375,730.
Yet San Francisco remained first on the scorecard at 81.98. New York ranked fourth at 70.38. San Francisco’s housing market also reflected low inventory, with median days on market falling to 32 by February 2025.
| Market | 2025 Signal |
|---|---|
| New York | 394,300 workers; up 8.4% |
| San Francisco | 375,730 workers; down 6% |
The numbers also reflected labor mobility and remote work patterns. New York added 30,640 workers from 2022 to 2025, averaging more than 10,000 annually.
San Francisco lost 23,900 over the same period. Despite that decline, it preserved leadership in concentration and talent-magnet measures.
Why AI and Finance Lifted New York
AI hiring and New York’s finance-heavy economy combined to push the city past the San Francisco Bay Area in raw tech-talent headcount, according to CBRE’s 2026 scorecard.
New York reached 394,300 tech jobs, about 18,500 more than the Bay Area.
That gain reflected broad labor growth tied to an AI realignment, not only AI leadership.
Finance Created Durable Demand
The city’s financial-services base supported recurring hiring in banking AI, trading systems, asset management, and fintech.
Employers sought workers who mixed domain expertise with analytics, automation, and model support.
Applied AI Fit the Market
New York’s business mix favored applied AI across finance, media, advertising, and professional services.
Large institutions used corporate pilots and workflow automation in forecasting, reporting, compliance, and trading support.
This created many tech-qualified roles beyond traditional software engineering.
Why San Francisco Still Ranks First Overall
New York’s lead in raw tech-worker headcount did not move the San Francisco Bay Area out of first place on CBRE’s broader 2026 tech-talent scorecard.
CBRE uses 13 weighted metrics, not workforce size alone.
That broader framework left the Bay Area at 81.98, ahead of New York Metro at 70.38.
Structural Advantages Hold
Talent concentration remains a central reason.
The Bay Area’s dense mix of engineers, founders, and specialists strengthens hiring speed, peer networks, and employer visibility across a smaller market footprint.
Its education pipeline also remains unusually deep.
Leading universities and the wider regional ecosystem continue feeding specialized technical and advanced research roles.
Research Depth Matters
CBRE also weighs research investment heavily.
The Bay Area’s R&D base, AI specialization, and durable market depth still give it the strongest overall profile.
What This Means for U.S. Tech Hiring
As hiring momentum shifts toward larger, multi-sector labor pools, the U.S. tech market is becoming less dependent on a single legacy hub. New York’s 394,300 tech workers now slightly exceed the Bay Area’s 375,730, signaling that sourcing strategies may broaden beyond West Coast concentration.
Employers are likely to treat New York as a primary market, especially as AI hiring accelerates across finance, media, and other nontraditional sectors.
Competitive Pressure
Because both regions added more than 20,000 AI roles, competition is intensifying for machine-learning, data, and engineering talent.
Recruiters may need stronger compensation packages, remote relocation options, and diversity recruitment efforts to reach candidates in tighter, cross-industry labor markets.
San Francisco still leads on broader ecosystem strength, but national hiring patterns appear more distributed, more market-sensitive, and less centered on one historic tech capital.
Assessment
The 2025 data indicates a meaningful shift in U.S. tech hiring, with New York moving ahead of San Francisco in total tech talent headcount.
AI expansion, financial sector demand, and a broad employer base strengthened New York’s position.
San Francisco, however, retained its overall lead through startup density, venture capital concentration, and deep engineering influence.
The result reflects a more competitive national hiring milieu, where scale and specialization are increasingly split between separate tech hubs.
