NYC saw ‘tech talent boom’ as top destination for relocating workers in 2023: study

New York City is “in the midst of a tech talent boom” — and was the preferred destination for relocating tech workers in 2023, according to an industry study.

The Big Apple posted a 3.6% net gain in tech talent, meaning more workers relocated to the city than left to pursue opportunities, according to an analysis released by venture capital firm SignalFire.

The gain was the largest of any city in the country, with New York “claiming 15% of all people who moved” for tech jobs, SignalFire researchers Asher Bantock and Heather Doshay wrote in the report released Monday.

That’s despite the fact that New York City has one of the highest costs of living in the country.

“Anecdotally, we hear movers reference the ‘energy’ of the city – both professionally and socially,” Doshay told The Post.

“You would think people moving from high-cost-of-living cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston would disperse to lower-cost-of-living metro areas – and in many cases they are with moves to places like Austin,” Doshay added.

“But for a lot of tech professionals, they don’t want to sacrifice perceived career and social opportunities at any cost.”

The study was based on a set of LinkedIn data that tracked approximately 57,000 relocating employees at a selection of the largest tech companies and some private firms.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the data.

New York beat out other top contenders such as Austin, Texas, which posted a net gain of 1.4%, and Los Angeles at 0.6%.

Other cities that experienced net-positive tech relocations included Denver, San Diego and Miami.

Meanwhile, traditional Big Tech hubs were saw an exodus of tech workers.

That included San Francisco, which experienced a net loss of 3.7% among relocating tech industry staffers, and Seattle, which took a 2.3% hit.

Tech workers who left the San Francisco Bay Area were most likely to move to New York City, the analysis showed.

Despite a net outflow of tech workers, a SignalFire representative noted that San Francisco remains the national leader in tech industry talent – especially as the artificial intelligence boom gets underway.

San Francisco also had the highest share of employees who work in AI or machine-learning among the top 10 metro areas measured in SignalFire’s report, followed by Seattle and New York City.

Despite the outflows, San Francisco’s total tech headcount is still growing as workers from outside the industry switch career paths, according to SignalFire.

“San Francisco remains the leader in terms of tech talent concentration, but New York is clearly gaining ground,” Doshay added.

New York attracted more talent even as the tech industry saw a wave of job cuts last year, with industry giants such as Amazon, Google and Meta among the firms that conducted layoffs.