Canada’s most talented financial services employees are creating more demand for office space in the country’s major markets.

A new Colliers report shows that top financial services workers in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver rank among the best in the world. As a result, leading firms are leasing more space in the cities to employ top talent, said Adam Jacobs, Colliers head of Canadian research.

Toronto ranked fourth in the world in labour index and venture-capital funding, while Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver also figured prominently in the top 60 markets. Meanwhile, Canada’s largest city ranked second in North America in labour index, VC funding, talent pipeline, industry output and overall core.

Colliers obtained the results after surveying more than 200 markets across the globe.

“It’s very favourable for Toronto,” Jacobs said in an interview.

Most Canadians are used to seeing the country’s big banks employ many people and occupy large office towers in Toronto, he added. But many Canadians would be surprised to learn that the city is “way ahead of the curve” as it outperforms such leading markets as Paris, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, among others in terms of talent and employment output.

Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver’s results also bode well for those cities’ office markets, he indicated.

“It’s always an area that, I think, we almost take for granted,” he said of Canadian financial services talent,” said Jacobs, adding that Canada has many people with high education levels.

He noted that Canadian cities do not perform as well as their competitors when it comes to attracting venture capital.

“But on the human capital side, it’s a great story,” said Jacobs.

The report says companies will have to factor in younger employees’ desire for hybrid work and consider the effects of AI. But it also notes that firms want to hire employees highly knowledgeable of AI to attract to future trends. Jacobs said fears that AI would eliminate demand for financial services workers and office space have proved to be unfounded.

“There’s a lot of talk about it, but we haven’t see that AI makes accountants or accountants or accountants or HR or the IT department obsolete,” he said. “I think we keep waiting for that, but it just doesn’t seem to be happening. Whether it’s cultural, whether it’s just that AI is not maybe quite as amazing as we think, I’m not sure. I’m a little bit on the skeptical side personally.”

Jacobs said the report indicates that companies based in the U.S. and other countries leasing more space ouside their borders as they seek to move services, such as call centres, offshore. But that’s not the case in Canada.

“A lot of the employment is Canadian firms employing Canadians,” he said.

Pictured: Office towers in Toronto’s financial district.