Valley job market gains: GROWTH IS BROAD-BASED; JOBLESS RATE FALLS TO 4.5%
By Sarah Jane Tribble
Mercury News
The jobs rebound in Silicon Valley has kicked into a higher gear, according to state data released Friday.
After months of slow but steady growth, the California Employment Development Department released September employment data indicating that a long-term recovery from the technology bust of 2000 is picking up steam.
``Things look good in Silicon Valley; this is one of the best reports I've seen in a while,'' said Steven Cochrane, economist for Moody's Economy.com. ``The economy is accelerating.''
The state's employment department said 1,900 additional jobs in Santa Clara and San Benito counties pushed the area's unemployment rate down to 4.5 percent for the month of September from 4.7 percent in August. A year ago, the September unemployment rate was 5.3 percent down from 5.4 percent the previous month.
And from professional services to manufacturing, job growth across many sectors resulted in one of the best August-to-September performances in 16 years, while the number of jobs in Silicon Valley increased 1 percent from a year ago -- a strong indicator that job growth is here to stay.
The breadth of job growth was especially important, economists said, indicating that the region wasn't overly dependent on the volatile technology sector. Professional and business services -- such as computer systems design, security services and legal services -- led the growth by adding 800 jobs last month. But the government sector added 500 jobs and construction 600 -- despite slow housing growth.
Indeed, year over year only a handful of job categories showed slowing growth, including an 11.5 percent drop in jobs in the newspaper publishing sector, the biggest decline.
The broad-based job growth means the economy is buffered from the sharp rises and declines it has seen in years past, said Pat Dando, president and chief executive of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.
``There's a lot of optimism,'' Dando said. ``People are investing and getting ready to hire, and frankly getting ready for a very positive, stable 2007.''
Another bright indicator for the area is the resurgence of jobs in both the hardware and software sectors as well as other computer-related areas, analysts said.
Janice Shriver, labor market analyst for the California Employment Development Department, said Silicon Valley has had a relatively difficult time recovering from the bust compared with Oakland and San Francisco. Because so much of the job market in the valley was devoted to high-tech research and development, when that sector suffered other jobs were affected.
Now investment in research and development is becoming a new job generator.
The valley is regaining its niche for Internet innovation even as people strive to be careful not to repeat the rapid rise and fall of the bust, Cochrane said.
``We know that this industry can be very volatile, but for now the area seems to have gotten back in the groove again,'' he said.
Mercury News
The jobs rebound in Silicon Valley has kicked into a higher gear, according to state data released Friday.
After months of slow but steady growth, the California Employment Development Department released September employment data indicating that a long-term recovery from the technology bust of 2000 is picking up steam.
``Things look good in Silicon Valley; this is one of the best reports I've seen in a while,'' said Steven Cochrane, economist for Moody's Economy.com. ``The economy is accelerating.''
The state's employment department said 1,900 additional jobs in Santa Clara and San Benito counties pushed the area's unemployment rate down to 4.5 percent for the month of September from 4.7 percent in August. A year ago, the September unemployment rate was 5.3 percent down from 5.4 percent the previous month.
And from professional services to manufacturing, job growth across many sectors resulted in one of the best August-to-September performances in 16 years, while the number of jobs in Silicon Valley increased 1 percent from a year ago -- a strong indicator that job growth is here to stay.
The breadth of job growth was especially important, economists said, indicating that the region wasn't overly dependent on the volatile technology sector. Professional and business services -- such as computer systems design, security services and legal services -- led the growth by adding 800 jobs last month. But the government sector added 500 jobs and construction 600 -- despite slow housing growth.
Indeed, year over year only a handful of job categories showed slowing growth, including an 11.5 percent drop in jobs in the newspaper publishing sector, the biggest decline.
The broad-based job growth means the economy is buffered from the sharp rises and declines it has seen in years past, said Pat Dando, president and chief executive of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.
``There's a lot of optimism,'' Dando said. ``People are investing and getting ready to hire, and frankly getting ready for a very positive, stable 2007.''
Another bright indicator for the area is the resurgence of jobs in both the hardware and software sectors as well as other computer-related areas, analysts said.
Janice Shriver, labor market analyst for the California Employment Development Department, said Silicon Valley has had a relatively difficult time recovering from the bust compared with Oakland and San Francisco. Because so much of the job market in the valley was devoted to high-tech research and development, when that sector suffered other jobs were affected.
Now investment in research and development is becoming a new job generator.
The valley is regaining its niche for Internet innovation even as people strive to be careful not to repeat the rapid rise and fall of the bust, Cochrane said.
``We know that this industry can be very volatile, but for now the area seems to have gotten back in the groove again,'' he said.
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