Silicon Valley Has Most Job Growth since 2001

As I have noted in two of my previous posts (Bay Area "Percolating" With High Paying Jobs) and (Venture-capital funding best in five years) the job juggernaut in the bay area that is Silicon Valley is on a comeback. From information technology and Web 2.0, to going green and energy innovation, the bay area is in the first inning of a long nine inning ball game of growth.


Excerpts from the Sunday San Jose Mercury News Story.

Silicon Valley on the rebound, report says

Silicon Valley is back to creating new jobs and delivering fatter paychecks, a new report shows.
The technology hub has ``rebooted,'' putting the post-crash doldrums in the past, according to the latest Silicon Valley Index, an annual economic assessment by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, an alliance of business and community institutions.

With big tech firms recovering and start-ups flowering, the valley added 33,000 jobs in 2006 -- the first increase since 2001. The region's median household income also registered its first increase since the downturn, climbing 6.5 percent in 2006 to $76,300 -- a reversal of a 13 percent decline from 2001 to 2004.

...The theme of the latest assessment is strongly positive. In the January 2006 report, ``we saw the first evidence the downturn was behind us,'' with the economy stabilizing and hiring flat, said Russell Hancock, Joint Venture's president and chief executive.....

``This year we see quite clearly that Silicon Valley has done it again -- we've reinvented ourselves.'' He cited the growth in renewable energy ventures and so-called Web 2.0 start-ups, such as YouTube, that harness the Internet....

...Recent job growth, the economist said, reflects a new confidence. Before, ``productivity gains weren't showing up in job gains. That's not the case anymore.''...

..Another plus, he said, is a dramatic surge of venture funding into ``clean technologies'' that address pollution and the affect of greenhouse gases. The ``cleantech'' funding to valley firms soared from $141 million in 2005 to $516 million in 2006....

...``There's a lot of excitement about the green economy. I think it's real,'' Henton said. Venture funding, he said, is a leading indicator of economic performance that should stimulate later job growth....

By Scott Duke Harris
Mercury News