Triangle powers up 2 spots in tech work rankings; average pay hits $99.8K

Editor’s Note: This WRAL TechWire’s Commercial Real Estate special report “Follow the Numbers” is supported by commercial real estate firm CBRE Raleigh.

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – The popularity of North Carolina’s Research Triangle among tech workers and the companies that employ them was evident prior to the pandemic. In the post-COVID re-shuffling, the region remains an even more popular draw.

In commercial real estate and service firm CBRE’s latest national Scoring Tech Talent report, Raleigh-Durham moved up two notches to #19.

The region, which includes both the Raleigh-Cary and Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), grew its tech workforce by nearly 74,000, or 24.3 percent from 2017 to 2022, CBRE found.

Another highlight: For the first time, the Dallas-based global real estate services company’s annual 2023 scorecard included an analysis of wages earned by tech professionals. Raleigh-Durham had the 11^th highest annual average compensation at $99,825, CBRE found.

CBRE graphic

“One of the key components of how users evaluate a market is the quality and availability of talent in the local workforce,” explains Jason High, executive vice president with CBRE|Raleigh’s Occupier Services group, who represents large tech industry tenants in Europe and North America. “Raleigh-Durham continues to be a strong market relative to others, and when you factor in the cost of living, quality of life and the talent that continues to be churned out of our universities, it tells a good story of our market as a whole.”

Nationally, tech firms added nearly 2.5 times more tech jobs than the second highest industry sector, professional services, from 2020 to 2022, with software developers and programmers across all industries accounted for 60 percent of new tech jobs. But as the economy weakened in late 2022, tech firms began shedding jobs, mostly non-tech positions like marketing and sales.

“It’s been an interesting three years,” says High, who has been with CBRE in the Triangle since 2004. “Every company right now is trying to figure out what’s best for them in recruiting and retaining talent.”

Among the indicators in which the Triangle Region excels is educational attainment. Raleigh-Durham ranks #4 among major markets in terms of adult residents holding bachelor’s degrees or greater – 50.7 percent versus the national average of 35 percent. Also capturing the imagination of tech industry leaders is the region’s comparatively youthful population. From 2016 to 2021, Raleigh-Durham saw an 8 percent increase in residents in their 20s – the fourth fastest growth among large markets, according to CBRE. Local residents in their 30s surged by  11.7% in that time, also placing the region in the top ten.

Ashley Cagle, assistant executive director at Wake County Economic Development, a program of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, credits the region’s community colleges for the high educational attainment ranking. “Wake Tech Community College and Durham Tech Community College have each focused on articulation agreements with universities,” Cagle says, in reference to the network of formal arrangements that enable seamless transfers of college credits from two-year to four-year institutions. Such inter-campuses collaborations have helped pull non-traditional college students into the higher education system and put them on a path to earn degrees that tech firms seek in new hires. “From an economic development standpoint, that is what is making the biggest difference,” Cagle says.

As director of N.C. State University’s Economic Development Partnership, Tom White often fields questions from visiting executives and their location consultants. “More and more, they ask about our connections with other educational institutions,” he says. White is able to discuss N.C. State’s nexus of ties to area community colleges, as well joint programs with public and private institutions like UNC, N.C. Central University and Meredith College.

When growing companies from outside North Carolina consider the Triangle as a potential expansion or relocation destination, White frequently is asked to gather data on undergraduate and graduate students at N.C. State University who are pursuing degrees in engineering, computer science and other technical programs. “Because of the nature of the projects we’ve seen in the last few years, there’s been a lot of interest in our engineering programs,” says White, who also can provide figures and mapping images on where N.C. State alums go. “Three quarters of our engineering grads stay in the state, for example, most of those in the Triangle,” he says.

While Wake County welcomes new residents across all ages and stages of life and career, the average age of new arrivals is trending younger, the Raleigh Chamber’s Cagle says. So too is the average age of all residents. Those moving to the county now average 27 years old, while the average age of all county residents is now 36. “We’ve become a more attractive place for younger people,” she says. At the same time, the community is doing better at keeping young talent from departing for jobs in other cities. “We now have more people who were born here who are choosing to stay here,” she says. “We have a stronger base to pull from.”

Getting employees back in the office: Employers wield both carrots, sticks

Cost-of-living is the primary reason people are moving to Raleigh from more expensive northeastern cities. “We’re pretty competitive across the board. That includes housing, groceries and healthcare,” Cagle says. So important are cost considerations among those exploring relocation that her organization recently added a cost-of-living calculator to its extensive Work in the Triangle website. One example: the average monthly rent for a Raleigh apartment is $1,644, according to the site. That’s compared with $1,819 for compable space in Austin, Tex., which took a #6 overall score in CBRE’s tech talent report this year.

The more compelling lure for bringing and keeping young tech talent to Durham is now the prospect of working for industry giants like Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and other big names, according to Matt Gladdek, vice president of economic development at the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce. “We’re having more success keeping local grads in this area because of the jobs and opportunities that are here,” says Gladdek, who began his current position earlier this year after working in downtown development roles in Chapel Hill and Durham. Gladdek says expansions in curriculum and facilities at Durham Tech and N.C. Central are reassuring local and arriving tech leaders that local talent pipelines will remain robust.

As Triangle’s life science industry booms, real estate leaders get proactive in filling space needs

Nationally, tech talent is predominantly White, Asian and male in comparison to total employment, CBRE data found. Hispanics, Blacks and females are underrepresented both in technology occupations and across the industry as a whole. But the Triangle holds up well in terms of women in technology fields, according to CBRE, ranking #2 among all markets, with females accounting for slightly under 27 percent of tech talent here. The lopsided numbers elevate cities like Durham, which has made it a priority to attract good-paying job opportunities all its residents can access. “One of the reasons we’re seeing such growth in our tech sector is the diversity of the area and the diversity of our workforce,” Gladdek says. “Companies believe it leads to greater innovation and better outcomes.”

Real estate professionals are watching tech talent trends closely in hopes of divining insight on where demand for commercial real estate may be heading. After feverish hiring during the pandemic, technology companies are now re-assessing their headcounts and office footprints. Prominent execs have also been vocal in their calls to bring workers back to the office after more than three years of remote work. “In both our market and across the U.S., the tech industry has been a significant driver of demand for office space,” says Elizabeth Gates, senior research analyst at CBRE|Raleigh. “That got supercharged during the pandemic.”

Gates believes the region’s strong cadre of educated young workers will continue to pique the interest of tech industry leaders. “As a rapidly growing market that’s generating this type of talent, we’re going to continue to be a place that attracts those companies,” she says. The trend should mean steady demand for Class A office properties as tech firms hope to lure staff back to the workplace. “The types of spaces those companies are going to want are going to be focused on quality locations, quality amenities and quality buildings — places where people can come together to collaborate and create,” Gates says.

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