Denver continues to rank among North America’s leading technology talent markets, while Colorado Springs is emerging as one of the continent’s strongest secondary markets for tech workers, according to CBRE’s 2026 Scoring Tech Talent Report.
Denver was ranked 16th among the top 50 tech talent markets in the report, and Colorado Springs was ranked 3rd among the top 25 emerging markets.
CBRE’s annual report evaluates 75 U.S. and Canadian markets based on factors including tech talent supply, growth, educational attainment, labor costs and the ability to attract and retain workers. The report separately ranks the 50 largest established tech talent markets and 25 smaller “opportunity markets.”
Denver is part of the established group, continuing to stand out for its highly educated workforce. More than 52% of Denver-area residents age 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher, placing the market among the top 10 for educational attainment. CBRE also identifies Denver as one of the markets with particularly high concentrations of educated residents in their 20s and 30s — an important source of future tech talent.
Denver continues to contend with elevated office vacancy, although conditions are improving. CBRE reported a 28.7% overall office vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2026, down 20 basis points from the previous quarter. The market recorded 179,000 square feet of positive net absorption in Q2, its strongest quarterly performance since early 2022.
The report’s findings also highlight the growing importance of Colorado Springs to the state’s technology ecosystem.
CBRE ranks Colorado Springs No. 3 among its 25 opportunity markets in North America, behind Huntsville, Alabama, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. The opportunity-market ranking is designed to identify smaller markets that can provide employers with additional pools of tech talent outside the largest established hubs.
Colorado Springs has 20,160 tech workers, according to the report, and its tech workforce grew 12.3% over the three years covered by the analysis. The market produced approximately 1,500 tech-related degree graduates in 2024, providing an additional pipeline of talent.
The Springs also ranked highly because of its combination of tech talent availability and relative market opportunity. CBRE’s analysis suggests that smaller markets such as Colorado Springs can give companies access to additional talent pools while potentially offering greater cost efficiency than the largest technology hubs.
Read the full report HERE.
