CBRE Report identifies San Antonio and others as “new cities of finance”
In its inaugural annual report on the financial services industry, CBRE examines markets across the U.S. for their availability and cost of highly skilled workers, particularly those with technology backgrounds.
CBRE found that less expensive, “active” markets have posted significant growth in financial services employment since 2010. The “active” markets that have above-average growth in financial-services employment, according to the CBRE report, are:
San Antonio Columbus, Ohio
Nashville Phoenix
Dallas/Fort Worth Jacksonville, Fla.
Salt Lake City Tampa
Richmond, Va. Charlotte
“New economic realities, continued regulatory pressure and the threat of technology disruption are unrelenting forces driving changes in the financial services industry,” said Julie Whelan, CBRE’s Head of Occupier Research in the Americas. “Firms are shaping their real-estate strategy in response to these trends and a number of ‘new cities of finance’ are emerging across the U.S.”
Mike Sawtelle, Senior Vice President, CBRE, in San Antonio, said, “A steady stream of financial services-related companies are considering San Antonio for shared services operations, like accounting, human resources and marketing. East and west coast companies are looking for cost efficiencies to improve their bottom line, and the site selection conversation always begins with labor-force availability and labor-force costs. If we meet those initial requirements, they will drill down on real estate options, cost of living, culture and economic incentives."
The report further identifies five “next-generation” markets that, according to proprietary analysis by CBRE’s Labor Analytics group, offer affordable real estate and expanding pools of skilled labor even though the financial-services industry has, as yet, a smaller footprint in each. Included among those are Boise, Idaho, and Provo, Utah.
Based on CBRE’s examination of skilled-labor availability, labor costs, real-estate costs, market education levels and other factors, many of these active and next-generation markets scored highly as ideal recruiting and employment centers for the types of workers sought by the industry.
- Salt Lake City, Tampa, San Antonio, Phoenix and
Columbus rank highly among cities offering the best mix of labor availability
and cost for shared services jobs,
which include back-office roles such as accounting, human resources, legal and
finance.
- Columbus, Charlotte and Phoenix rank as ideal
recruiting grounds for risk and
compliance workers, such as quantitative analysts, mathematicians and
compliance officers.
- Provo (Utah), Salt Lake City and Charlotte are among those atop the list of cities providing a balance of labor availability and cost for financial-services technology jobs such as software developers, web developers and information-security analysts.
“Financial services companies are continuing to seek out new and emerging locations that provide them with access to talent at affordable rates,” said Kristin Sexton, CBRE’s Managing Director of Labor Analytics. “Labor is the driving force behind the growth of the financial services industry in these smaller, ‘active’ markets.”
To view the full report, click here.
About CBRE Group, Inc.
CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (in terms of 2015 revenue). The Company has more than 70,000 employees (excluding affiliates), and serves real estate investors and occupiers through more than 400 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide. CBRE offers a broad range of integrated services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com.
