Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
Charlotte vs Montreal as financial centres is an interesting discussion.
There is no denying Charlotte's GDP primacy and it's no doubt related at least in part to being a secondary HQ hub for US banks. Another factor as others have said is that US cities, metros and states always punch higher in terms of GDP in general, since the US economy is so optimally capitalized compared to most any other.
Still, Charlotte doesn't generally show up in any top global financial centres lists. Montreal is on almost all of them, though not in the top 10 of course.
According to an article from some Charlotte business journal, there were 91,000 financial sector jobs in Charlotte at the end of 2022.
Whereas Montreal already had 100,000 financial sector jobs in 2007-2008, and the sector there has grown and not contracted since then.
Now, it's fairly likely that that on average each financial sector job in Charlotte brings in more money (for both the employer and employee) than each equivalent job in Montreal does.
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according to CBRE, Montreal had over 148,000 tech jobs in 2021, more than Vancouver (115,000) and on par with Atlanta (145,000).
Charlotte just under 62,000. Raleigh-Durham (known as "research triangle" Eds & Meds) had ~69,000 tech jobs.
On the CBRE "Tech Talent Scorecard" Toronto is ranked #3 (after SF Bay, and Seattle), Montreal #15, Charlotte #27 (1 slot above Calgary).
Of course with tech jobs being massively cut, we'll have to wait and see until new data comes out to see if there's been a shift either towards or away from certain markets.
https://www.cbre.com/insights/books/...ch-talent-2022
I don't know why the focus is entirely on GDP, when the quality of daily life is arguably much higher quality in Montreal than Charlotte. And Montreal has an international reputation and is clearly one of the best cities overall in North America.
Charlotte is primarily known for it's constantly expanding airport and a few financial skyscrapers/large banking presence. Traffic is bad, it's a sprawly mess of a region, public transit (despite recently building LRT/streetcar) is a joke, it's still very
redneck despite growing to over 2.6 Million in the MSA.