Silicon Valley job boom ends for now as employment growth slows down: report
Silicon Valley's job boom has hit a pause as hiring slows dramatically.
SAN JOSE — Silicon Valley’s job boom has hit a pause, and while the region is still adding workers, the pace of hiring in 2023 was markedly slower than what was the case the year before, a new report shows.
While hiring is slowing, median housing is on the rise, according to the new Silicon Valley Index 2024, a closely watched report that was released on Monday.
Despite the cross-currents, Silicon Valley’s economy remains relatively healthy, according to the new assessment from Joint Venture Silicon Valley, which released the new report on the region’s economic mosaic.
“This is still a growing economy,” said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a San Jose-based think tank.
The upswings are occurring despite what has now become a dreary drumbeat of tech industry job cuts and retreats from the amount of office space they occupy.
Even so, by its broadest measure, hiring has shifted into low gear in Silicon Valley, according to the Index 2024 report. The index defines Silicon Valley as Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, the southern Alameda County region that includes Fremont and a section of Santa Cruz County.
Over the one-year period that ended in June 2023, Silicon Valley added about 2,700 jobs, the Silicon Valley Index 2024 report determined. That’s a sharp slowdown from the 88,000 jobs the region added during the one-year period that ended in June 2022.
Much of this is occurring due to the cutbacks and retrenchment in the region’s tech industry.
“The pandemic was a bonanza for the tech industry, which did some over-hiring,” Hancock said. “Our largest tech employers did some re-calibrating. There was some overhiring. Tech companies have been doing some right-sizing.”
The tech sector now embraces what Hancock describes as its latest “fad” as the industry seeks to rein in costs and keep Wall Street placated.
“Silicon Valley goes through what I call fads,” Hancock said. “The current fad is efficiency. The move towards efficiency is working. Tech companies are running lean and mean.”