Toronto's tech workforce hits 358,000 — third largest in North America

Toronto ranked third for tech sector employment in 2025, with more than 358,000 workers in the field, placing the city just behind the San Francisco Bay Area and New York Metro, according to a new CBRE report.

The city's growth outpaced all other markets: Toronto added approximately 75,000 tech workers between 2022 and 2025, the most of any of the 50 markets studied. Overall, the tech workforce grew 26.5 per cent during that span. Tech workers now comprise 11.3 per cent of Toronto's total employment — more than double the average across all other markets in the report.

The CBRE Scoring Tech Talent report ranks the top 50 North American tech markets using metrics including labour market conditions, cost, and quality of life. Eight Canadian cities landed in the top 50, with Vancouver ranking ninth, Waterloo Region tenth, and Montreal eleventh.

Waterloo Region, west of Toronto, topped the rankings for smaller tech markets with about 41,900 tech workers in 2025. The region grew 37.4 per cent since 2022, adding roughly 11,400 workers. Despite its smaller overall workforce, technology represents a larger share of Waterloo's employment at 12.2 per cent — higher than Toronto's proportion.

Across Canada, AI-specialty talent showed explosive growth. Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver together account for a significant share of Canada's AI-specialty talent.