Nearshore Americas

Move Over, São Paulo! Mexico City Claims Crown as LATAM’s Software Dev Hub

São Paulo (Brazil) once stood atop Latin America’s tech ecosystem thanks in great part to its large volume of software developers. Not anymore.

Mexico City has outpaced São Paulo and emerged as Latin America’s largest tech talent hub.

Mexico’s capital now stands as the region’s largest spot for tech employment, with 300,000 jobs and an 88% growth rate over the past five years, according to data from consultancy firm CBRE. São Paulo, which topped CBRE’s ranking last year, now employs 240,227 tech professionals.

Lower wages, talent availability and cheaper real estate (compared with Brazilian top cities) seem to be the main factors behind Mexico City’s rise to the top. Tech workers in Mexico City earn an average annual salary of US$39,000. Software developers in the city make up to US$47,938.

Mexico City salaries are significantly lower than in the US, where tech workers earn US$119,540 on average. The city’s lower operational costs add to its appeal. Office rent averages US$23.57 per square foot, with a 24.3% vacancy rate.

Other tech markets in Latin America, such as São Paulo and Santiago (Chile), offer higher salaries and have shown slower growth. Monterrey, another Mexican city, has seen the fastest growth in the region, with a 125% increase in tech jobs over the last five years.

Over 24,000 tech graduates came from Mexico City in 2023, reinforcing the city’s position as a leading tech hub.

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Yazmín Ramírez, Senior Director of Labor Analytics and Client Consulting at CBRE LATAM, said Mexico City’s growing pool of tech labor continued to attract manufacturers, engineering firms and other companies seeking to bring operations back to Latin America from overseas.

CBRE’s 11th “Scoring Tech Talent” report ranks 75 cities based on various factors, including tech job growth, tech degree completions, labor and real estate costs, and millennial population. The San Francisco Bay Area leads this year’s global rankings, followed by Seattle and Toronto.

Narayan Ammachchi

News Editor for Nearshore Americas, Narayan Ammachchi is a career journalist with a decade of experience in politics and international business. He works out of his base in the Indian Silicon City of Bangalore.

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