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Bay Area Tech Job Growth Has Rapidly Decelerated (mercurynews.com)
An anonymous reader shares a MercuryNews report: Job growth in the tech industry used to zoom like a race car, but these days, hiring by this principal driver of the Bay Area's economy chugs along more like a family SUV. The technology industry's job growth in the nine-county region has dramatically decelerated, according to this newspaper's analysis of figures released by state labor officials and Beacon Economics. Tech's annual job growth throttled back to 3.5 percent, or 26,700 new jobs, in 2016. That's much slower than the 6 percent annual gain of 42,300 jobs in 2015, or the 6.4 percent gain in 2014. And while the industry's 3.5 percent growth last year is still a sturdy annual pace, Bay Area technology companies have already disclosed plans to slash about 2,000 jobs in the first three months of 2017.
The market can bear only so many image-sharing chat "apps".
They ran out of cheap H1B's to hire.
It's 2017, and you're a technology company, no, I will not move to the Bay Area.
The problem when any one area becomes really hot like the Bay Area has over the last thirty years is that it reaches a point when increasing costs outstrip even the lucrative pay and entertainment options. This becomes especially true as one gets a little older and the demands of family make indulging in those entertainment options impossible or at least difficult.
That's before you even factor in those now-established employers turning to look inward to figure out what they can do to reduce costs, and paying the salaries required to live some place like San Francisco, and paying for the real estate to have operations there will be up for consideration. Datacenters can be just about anywhere, and if operations are established in places that are not so expensive, like Cisco is pursuing with their TAC in Raleigh, NC, then they can reduce corporate costs.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Studios, 1, 2 bedroom apts are ~$2000, $2500, $3000 respectively. Rooms are $1000-1500/mo.
There is a critical shortage of programmers even though there are 10000 universities in the US churning out debt, er, I mean, highly educated smart people!
There's a shortage of tech workers to hire. Industry must have increased H1B caps!
That is all.
They're realizing that they can't keep importing indentured servants. The 21st century's Big Cotton is collapsing.
There is venture capital all over the country - World actually. But they are sane and it's going to be real hard to get some putz to hand you a hundred million dollars for five percent of your startup that has just an app and no plan for revenue generation aside from "selling ads".
After seeing some of the deals out there, I can see why there are all those signs beside streams that say don't drink the water. There must be some sort of hallucinogenic in the water. "This water is good! What? A billion dollars for your lawn mowing app! Sure!!"
The word has gotten out that you can live a nice life on the east coast, or live like a king in the midwest...but on the west coast, all your money goes towards cost of living.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
LinkedIn says there are 100,000+ tech jobs available in the San Francisco Bay Area.
There seems to be this idea that Silicon Valley is the center of all things tech. It really only accounts for a tiny fraction of the Tech labor force. What makes it "special" is the access to venture capital. If you had a big idea and wanted to be the next Facebook or Instagram sure, Silicon Valley might be for you. If you want to be a computer programer you could stay in any big Midwest City, make $150K (Full Time W2)/200+K (1099 Contract), and pay less than $1000/mo for home mortgage.
Dump some of the H1B visas, send those people back to where they came from, hire U.S. citizens at a good wage. The other issue is there are too many "startups" that do nothing but drain money. They don't PRODUCE anything.
Don't you know that growth has limits? Infinite growth is.. well, cancer.
I know! I know!
A venture capital app.
Or is that recursive?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Even if they were to hire more people it would be from outside the country. Whether hiring stalls or is accelerating it doesn't make a difference to americans.
Twinstiq, game news
chugs along more like a family SUV.
Obviously the author has not seen how "family" SUVs are driven. I can assure you, they do not chug along. More like, "Prepare for ramming speed!"
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I'm seeing more and more tech companies that are headquartered in the Bay Area, and hiring mostly remote workers. With the right kind of team leader, and the right workers, a remote team can be nearly as effective as an in-house team, and costs are not as high. I wonder if these stats are skewed by remote workers, since they are technically not in the "Bay Area", even though the HQ may be?
SF is is a truly magical place.
I love being there to visit, but could never move there. cost of living is too crazy.
The Bay Area is for queers. Many of them, I assume, are decent people.
Sell Sell Sell!
I think my subject text says it all. I live on the Front Range of Colorado and the place is growing like crazy, as I think we're taking some of the overflow from the Silicon Valley. There's plenty of land to accommodate the growth but home builders are way behind in meeting the need.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
I got outta there years ago.The once beautiful place has succumbed to the burnout marijuana smokers from California who brought their sprawl, traffic, and high cost of living with them.
This is what happens when you don't buy your family new iPhones every year. You should feel ashamed, don't you know that a lot of us have 7 figure mortgages to pay?
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Spend all those billions trying to get SHillary elected and now we might lose out cheap H1B slave labor...