Where the Top Cities for Skilled Workers Are
These are the locations corporations might have to go to fill their needs for workers.
Did you hear the one about the corporation that got rid of all its workers/? Sure, they couldn’t make products, but their labor costs were great.
A joke, but if the results come from not being able to get help, it’s no laughing matter. Since 2010, according to the Pew Research Center, 10,000 baby boomers have been turning 65 on average every day and that trend was set to continue for at this point another six years. There’s been pressure downward on immigration and the US birthrate has been falling. As a result, the number of unemployed people available for each open job has dropped from 1.6 in October 2007 to 0.6 in October 2022, by Bureau of Labor Statistics calculations.
Automation and AI can help, but there’s still a shortage of people and, even more, skilled talent. That’s what makes the Colliers report on emerging talent gaps and where workers are moving so interesting. The firm aimed to “uncover select cities that show potential to become new homes for skilled workforces in the increasing war for talent.”
As the report notes, “Nearly 9 in 10 executives and managers say their organizations either face skill gaps already or expect gaps to develop within the next five years. However, only one-third of companies say they are prepared to handle the disruptions of skill and talent groups.”
Colliers offers a number of high-level suggestions for addressing the issues, but the area that will likely be of greatest interest to CRE professionals is the top ten cities where the talent for three big industries — financial services; life sciences; and technology, media, and telecom — can best be found.
Each sector has its own set of cities. For technology, media, and telecom, the top 20 are led by Denver, Charlotte, Seattle, San Jose, and Nashville. For financial services, the top five are Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Austin, Dallas, and Tampa. And for life sciences, they are Salt Lake City, Nashville, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Tampa.
Colliers built the ranks based on a combination of labor pool size, median wages, talent diversity, percent growth, quality of life, and STEM presence.
Targeting specific cities for certain types of industrial and office development could seem a good addition to other strategic considerations.
Another possibility is to look not at the top cities but some others. As the report stated, “Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Diego, and Orlando are top emerging cities overall however they do not appear in the top emerging cities for any of the three sectors indicating middle of the road scores in all categories.” But that middle level of ranking might still offer attractive opportunities.