New York City’s technology labor market has surpassed San Francisco, with the city employing more tech workers than the San Francisco Bay area. According to an annual CBRE report on North American tech talent, the New York metropolitan area’s tech workforce reached 394,300 in 2025, marking an 8.4 percent increase from 2022 that added 30,640 jobs.
Meanwhile, San Francisco’s tech employment fell by 6 percent over the same period, totaling 375,730 jobs in 2025. This is the first time in the report’s 13-year history that New York has come out ahead.
The city’s diversified job market helped set it apart, according to Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE’s tech insights center. Yasukochi said the job reductions in San Francisco, combined with New York’s continued growth, pushed New York past the San Francisco Bay Area.
San Francisco remains in North America’s top spot for its pool of tech talent, however, ranked across 13 metrics. The report, which analyzed the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and LinkedIn data, found that tech jobs make up more than 10 percent of total employment in San Francisco, compared to just 4.2 percent in New York.
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A whopping 61 percent of San Francisco’s tech talent works directly in the tech industry, according to CBRE’s report, leaving its general labor market vulnerable. In New York City, just 34 percent of its tech workers work within the industry, while 21 percent work in tech roles in finance, insurance, and real estate industries.
Yasukochi said this diversity has given New York resilience from the tech downturn that broadly started in 2022. However, the artificial intelligence industry has substantially turned things around in the last year.
Yasukochi added that New York also benefits from a massive university infrastructure and lower wages than San Francisco, on average, for roles like software engineers — a boon to employers eyeing East Coast headquarters.
News of New York City’s relative emergence in the tech world comes as its major players gobble up Manhattan’s office space. The city saw 800,000 square feet of office demand from AI businesses in the second quarter of 2026, according to Colliers data, surpassing the total yearly demand of 2025.
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AI leasing in Manhattan’s office market has already surpassed 1.8 million square feet this year, well above the roughly 1.4 million square feet of activity in 2025. The most recent quarter clinched a 124,733-square-foot deal at 345 Hudson Street from health care tech platform Tennr, and Google renewed 410,556 square feet at 315 Hudson Street.
San Francisco’s tech-powered office market is no slouch, either. AI leasing activity nationwide remains most concentrated in the City by the Bay, according to CBRE data, where AI-related companies have accounted for 30 percent of office demand since 2023, and half of all lease deals in the first half of 2026.
Emily Davis can be reached at [email protected].
