Chapter 4

How diverse are Tech Talent markets?

Scoring Tech Talent 2025

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Tech talent diversity by race/ethnicity and sex has improved slowly. Workforce dispersion and demographic analytics have created opportunities to increase diversity.

Strategic approaches to diverse team building can be enhanced by greater use of data and benchmarking analytics that identify where diverse talent is located and being developed. Our analysis details workforce race/ethnicity and sex by geography, industry, job classification and income bracket, as well as college tech degree graduates’ race/ethnicity and sex by geography. Workforce diversity for these categories used office-using industries as the benchmark for comparison. If tech talent diversity was below this benchmark, there was underrepresentation.

Industry Diversity

Tech talent across all industries has little changed over the past five years and remains predominantly White, Asian and male relative to total employment and office- using employment.4 U.S. Census Bureau data from 2023 shows that Hispanics, Blacks, other non-Whites, non-Asians and females were underrepresented (Figure 24). The Hispanic, Black and Other race/ethnicity categories combined accounted for 26.5% of the office-using workforce and 23.0% of the tech talent workforce in the U.S. In Canada, underrepresented race/ethnicity groups have a small share of tech talent employment (12.3%) but exceed that of office-using industries (11.8%), technically making its tech talent workforce more diverse than the U.S.

Figure 24: U.S. & Canada Workforce by Race/Ethnicity for Selected Industries (2023)

Source: U.S. Census, IPUMS, Statistics Canada, CBRE Research, May 2025.
Note: Office-using includes occupations that are typically performed in an office setting.
4 Non-tech occupations in industries that heavily use office space for their operations, including information, professional & business services and financial activities.

Female Diversity

Females were the most underrepresented group within the tech talent workforce (Figure 25), comprising 24% of the tech talent workforce across all industries and 20% within the tech industry. Females accounted for 30% of all occupations within the tech industry in the U.S., below the 47% share for total employment and 50% share for the office-using workforce. Females within underrepresented race/ethnicity groups (Hispanic, Black and Other) had a higher share of jobs than White females in all five workforce categories.

White females had a lower share than Asian females for all three tech industry categories but had higher or similar shares in the two general workforce categories. Black females had the highest share of jobs for all race/ethnicity groups and workforce categories.

In Canada, females comprised 23% of tech occupations within the tech industry and 24% across all industries. They were 49% of Canada’s total workforce and 48% of the office-using workforce.

Figure 25: Female Share of Total U.S. Workforce by Race for Certain Industries

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, IPUMS, CBRE Research, May 2025.
Note: Office-using includes occupations that are typically performed in an office setting.
Females accounted for 30% of all occupations within the tech industry in the U.S., below the 47% share for total employment and 50% share for the office-using workforce.

Occupation Diversity

Segmenting U.S. tech talent occupations across all industries in two broad categories showed that there was a higher concentration of female workers within Computer Support, Database & Systems occupations at 29.2% than within Software Developers, Programmers & Engineers at 17.6% (Figure 26). By race/ethnicity within these same occupations, Black and other females were less underrepresented than Black and other males. Asian females also had a higher share of these occupations than Asian males.

In Canada, females were similarly concentrated in the two broad tech occupation categories, with 27% within Computer Support, Database & Systems occupations and 24% within Software Developers, Programmers & Engineers.

Figure 26: U.S. Tech Talent Occupation Category by Race/Ethnicity & Sex (2023)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, IPUMS, CBRE Research, May 2025.

Income Diversity

Tech talent across all industries segmented by annual wage bracket for race/ethnicity and sex showed a higher concentration of underrepresented groups and females in the lower wage ranges, generally because they have been in these roles for fewer years. This data analysis does not conclude that wages for these groups are unequal, but only their representation in each bracket. A more detailed job-by-job and person-by-person analysis beyond the scope of the data analyzed is required to make such a determination.

Black and Hispanic tech talent in 2023 was concentrated in the under $100,000 wage bracket at 67% and 66%, respectively, compared with 34% for Asians and 54% for Whites (Figure 27). Female tech talent making less than $100,000 accounted for 61% of their total, compared with 49% for males. Hispanic and Black females had the highest concentrations under $100,000, both at 75%. Asian males had the highest concentration in the $150,000+ wage bracket at 38%, compared with 22% for Whites, 14% for Hispanics and 11% for Blacks.

The same data was compiled for software engineers, the biggest tech talent category (Figure 28). In general, software engineers earned higher wages than tech talent overall. Other notable differences included 36% of males in the $150,000+ wage bracket, compared with 24% of females. Black females had the highest concentration in the under $100,000 wage bracket at 56%, followed by Hispanic females at 54%. Asian and White males had the highest concentrations above $150,000 at 47% and 33%, respectively.

Figure 27: U.S. Tech Talent Workforce by Race/Ethnicity and Income Range (2023)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, IPUMS, CBRE Research, May 2025.

Figure 28: U.S. Software Engineers by Race/Ethnicity & Income Range (2023)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, IPUMS, CBRE Research, May 2025.

Geographic/Market Diversity

Demographics should be benchmarked by the representative workforce within a geographical or market area rather than at the country level. Demographics vary by geography and country-level data benchmarks would assume all markets to have the same diversity.

For tech talent markets, there was variability in underrepresented race/ethnic groups and females when benchmarked by office-using industries. If the difference between tech talent and the office-using benchmark is a positive number, it means there is no underrepresentation using this metric.

For underrepresented race/ethnic groups, the most diverse large tech talent markets were Calgary, Vancouver and Salt Lake City, while the most diverse small tech talent markets were Nashville, Edmonton and the Waterloo Region (Figure 29). The least diverse large markets were Greater Los Angeles-Orange County, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston, while the least diverse small markets were San Antonio, Richmond and Inland Empire, CA.

Females are the most underrepresented tech talent group. Compared with their office using benchmarks, Ottawa, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C had the best relative female representation for large markets, while Columbus, the Waterloo Region and Nashville were the best among small markets (Figure 30).

Figure 29: Underrepresented Race/Ethnic Groups in N.A. Tech Talent Workforce by Market (2023)

Source: U.S. Census, IPUMS, Statistics Canada, CBRE Research, May 2025.
* Difference calculation: Tech Talent Share minus Office-Using Share Benchmark.
** Hispanic, Black, Other Non-White/Non-Asian

Figure 30: Females in North America Tech Talent Workforce by Market (2023)

Source: U.S. Census, IPUMS, Statistics Canada, CBRE Research, May 2025.
* Difference calculation: Tech Talent Share minus Office-Using Share Benchmark.
** Hispanic, Black, Other Non-White/Non-Asian

Tech Degree Graduate Diversity & Current Enrollment

The pipeline of recent tech degree graduates offers opportunities to build the next generation of talent and use analytics to measure success. These graduates, like the existing tech talent workforce, were predominantly White, Asian and male.

Of the 364,000 U.S. tech degree graduates in 2023, 26% were from underrepresented race/ethnicity groups and 27% were female (Figure 31). Underrepresented race/ethnicity groups accounted for 32% of total college graduates in 2023 and females accounted for 59%. Asian, Hispanic and other race/ethnicity groups have materially increased their shares of tech degrees since 2010, while Blacks have increased slightly and the share of Whites has declined. The share of females has grown by 5 percentage points.

Compared with the existing tech talent workforce, the share of tech degree graduates from underrepresented groups (27%) exceeded existing workers (23%), as did female tech degree graduates (27%) compared with existing workers (25%). This is a positive indicator of future tech talent diversity.

Figure 31: U.S. Tech Degree Graduate's Race/Ethnicity & Sex (2023)

Source: IPEDS, CBRE Research, April 2025.
Notes: Total tech degree graduates and male/female breakdown includes U.S. resident and foreigners. Race/ethnicity breakdown excludes unknown races and foreigners.
Compared with the existing tech talent workforce, the share of tech degree graduates from underrepresented groups exceeded existing workers, as did female tech degree graduates compared with existing workers.

For underrepresented race/ethnic groups, the most diverse markets for tech degree graduates were South Florida, San Antonio, Houston, Inland Empire and Orlando (Figure 32). The least diverse markets were Madison, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit and Milwaukee.

For females, the most diverse markets for tech degree graduates were Boston, Seattle, Pittsburgh, New York Metro and the San Francisco Bay Area. The least diverse markets were Orlando, Salt Lake City, Milwaukee, Jacksonville and Madison.

The U.S. tech degree graduate pipeline grew by 2.9% year-over-year to 1.1 million as of Spring 2025, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center5 and CBRE Research estimates of students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs. While diversity breakdowns for these students were not available, trends suggest there will be greater tech talent workforce diversity than exists today.

Figure 32: U.S. Tech Degree Graduate's Race/Ethnicity & Sex by Market (2023)

Source: IPEDS, CBRE Research, April 2025.
Notes: Total tech degree graduates and male/female breakdown includes U.S. resident and foreigners. Race/ethnicity breakdown excludes unknown races and foreigners.
* Aggregate of Hispanic, Black, Other Non-White/Non-Asian.
5 "Overview: Spring 2024 Enrollment Estimates", National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Tech Talent Diversity Progress

Greater diversity of the tech talent workforce should continue to slowly progress. Our review of U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission diversity data and publicly released data from private tech companies confirms this. Accelerating the pace of workforce diversity is both a challenge and an opportunity.

Technology will be critical to support the new hybrid approach to work, in which team members can work either in the office, remotely or from widely dispersed locations. This hybrid/remote approach shows promise to expand tech talent recruitment across all markets and increase workforce diversity.

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Chapter 5 What are the highest- and lowest-cost markets to operate in?
Chapter 3 What defines a Tech Talent market?