Portland has definitely slipped among tech communities — but at least we’re still registering

It may surpries you to hear that CBRE’s new Scoring Tech Talent 2026 report features Portland. But what probably won’t surprise you is that the Rose City is near the bottom of the pack. 34th out of 50. So we’re still in the top 50. But lower than we would usually rank. Unfortunately, that slide puts us among the small handful of large markets that actually lost tech talent over the last three years. Down 3.5%. Somewhere around ~3000 people who used to do this work in tech around here. And now don’t.

Scoring Tech Talent is a comprehensive analysis of labor market conditions, costs and quality in North America for highly skilled tech workers that can help decision-makers fulfill critical business and innovation objectives.

The top 50 markets in the U.S. and Canada were ranked according to their competitive advantages and appeal to both employers and tech talent employees. Twenty-five up-and-coming U.S. and Canadian markets were also analyzed and ranked. The analysis provides further insight into the quality of tech workers, their demographics and diversity and how tech talent growth patterns are impacting cities and real estate markets.

So it’s kind of neither a win nor a loss. But it is worth noting. And not new. Portland has been continuing to slide off these lists for a while now. I said more or less the same thing back in 2020, the last time a national report noticed we weren’t keeping pace.

Part of the issue…? The whole industry is realigning around AI right now. And AI is concentrating in almost exactly one place. AI roles jumped to 31% of U.S. tech jobs this June. Up from 11% just four years ago. The Bay Area’s share of that is 57%. And since 2020, the Bay Area has accounted for 80% of all AI venture funding in the country. So it definitely feels like the dotcom days in more ways than one.

That being said, we do land in the top 10 on a couple of fronts. Total amount of tech talent and average annual wage. So there are glimmers of hope. And I, for one, am going to cling to those.

Being 34th on the overall list is a data point. Not a verdict. We can — hopefully — only go up from here.

For the complete report and additional rankings, visit Scoring Tech Talent 2026. Or, to get the take from a Seattle perspective, read the coverage in GeekWire.

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