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Tech Jobs Are Surging in Seattle, Declining in Silicon Valley (axios.com)
The number of posted tech jobs rose by 10.7 percent in the first half of the year from 2016 in the Seattle area, as eight tech hubs continue to dominate the U.S. technology industry, according to a new study by Indeed. From a report: But while Silicon Valley retains its spot as the premier technological center in the U.S., tech listings plunged by 5.9 percent in the western and southern valley around San Jose in the first half of the year, and an even higher 7.8 percent in San Francisco and along the eastern Bay Area, Indeed said. Raleigh, NC, saw the largest plummet, with tech listings dropping by 14.6 percent.
Not that I'll read it.
Not stated in the summary for some reason, but here's the article: http://www.hiringlab.org/2017/07/25/next-silicon-valley/
Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
Recruit'em from school and when they hit 30 something, lay'em off.
Rinse - repeat.
Keep'em young stupid and willing to kill themselves living to work.
The American way! Churn'em and burn'em!!
Why yes, I am a Silicon Valley entrepreneur! I was a used car salesman - but I was fired for ethics violations. I then became a real estate salemen and worked for Goldman Sachs who fired me because I wan't ethical to their standards.
But I fit right in here in SV!
I sincerely hope that everyone in Silicon Valley has a plan B and a relative who can help them pay the mortgage after the bubble bursts and their multimillion-dollar homes are worth pennies on the dollar.
Summary quotes one paragraph from a three-paragraph article about an Indeed.com job study that is much more interesting to read.
http://www.hiringlab.org/2017/07/25/next-silicon-valley/
Cost of living there could not continue to infinity.
Silicon Valley is on the decline because property is too expensive, taxes are too high, and the overall cost of living is higher than anywhere else in the US. Rent on a 1bdr apartment in SF will cost you 60K/yr, which is why you will find 1bdr apartments housing 6-8 adults regularly.
Seattle isn't far behind in terms all the down sides of Silicon Valley.
When companies can't hire people or pay too much in taxes themselves, they move to locations where they can do better. Nothing new here. Politicians still don't recognize the failures of their policies, and people still vote in the same ole crap politicians.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
I think there is a bit of a flaw in the way this indeed survey and others identify national tech hubs.
According to this survey, the top tech hubs have the highest percentage of their job listings advertising for tech jobs. This disregards the actual total number of tech jobs.
For example, Austin is considered a tech hub in this last while Dallas is not, but Dallas has way more tech jobs than Austin, which is a smaller city. The difference is that Dallas has a very diversified economy, so the percentage of job listings for tech is lower.
Personally, I'm more interested in the tech hubs that are part of a larger diversified market. Just like a diversified portfolio protects you from losing money from fluctuations in the market, a diverse economy protects your ability to find a local job when your industry takes a downturn.
California has earthquakes, but Seattle has earthquakes PLUS volcanoes. Seattle is in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which makes the San Andreas fault look weak and puny. So yeah, your chance of dying in a natural disaster just quintupled by moving from Palo Alto to Seattle.
Further to that, if you spot a hospital with a computer, you can deduce that the hospital is corrupt, and as such you should not enter it with the purpose of obtaining help.
Portland, OR is benefiting from the Bay area tech job departure to some degree. Tech jobs here are increasing and the real estate prices are going up. But they are still way way below Seattle or Bay area prices. I frequently have to travel to Bay area for work. That place is just nuts. I simply do not understand how so many there can afford the rent or mortgage.
Honestly, why not move to Bozeman or Boise or somewhere else where real estate is really cheap and tax breaks are more likely? I'd rather make $80k in Boise than twice that in the Bay Area.
Did anyone else read that as, "Seattle is in the Canadian Abduction Zone" and think Canadians were being held hostage in exchange for maple syrup? ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Is it possible that people are moving away from crazy web startup land to more established companies? Microsoft is poised to become the new IBM in terms of lock-in and guaranteed revenue with Azure, and Amazon has their tentacles in everything including AWS these days. Both are very close to becoming monopolies (again) raking in large amounts of money at a constant rate. Talk about a good place to find a stable job where companies have enough cash on hand to treat employees well...the opposite of post-bubble VC funding that's coming to Silicon Valley.
I like Seattle, but I wouldn't want to move across the country just to have the same insane cost of living I already have in New York. The Californians moving north are probably driving the increase in prices -- average SV techies make $200K+ and many are selling a million-dollar plus house. Microsoft and Amazon are going to have to at least match the SV salary plus pay for relocation.
Even tech people require housing. The smart investment money should be OUTSIDE of the hubs, which have become overpriced.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Basically a 110k job in SV is an 80k job in Seattle but a $1.2 million house in SV is a $600k house in Seattle and you'll get twice the yard. Pick your poison. Of course, you will never see in the sun in Seattle and SV has the best weather on the planet give or take but if you're a software developer that probably doesn't matter much to you.
SV has the best weather? You can keep it... I prefer Ventura, much more moderate temps year round, more sun - and water you can actually surf!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Not a bad time to mention the other side of the coin: Will the last person to Seattle- Turn out the lights.
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
You get in a traffic jam on 237 at 6:05 am and tell me jobs are fleeing. To avoid traffic you need to get up at 4 AM and leave work at 1 PM.
Bruce Perens.
SV has the best weather on the planet give or take
What? Who told you that? There's dozens of towns in California alone with better weather. Most of them are on the coast; Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel, and San Diego all spring immediately to mind. The weather in the valley ain't even on the top ten list. It's way too goddamned hot there.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Seriously, this is totally fake.
Look, if you believe this, you'll believe we have a $15/hr minimum wage, and grew from 600,000 to 700,000 people since 2010, and will be 1,000,000 people by 2040. And that we have (looks out the window), 45 construction cranes building new 6-100 story buildings in Seattle itself, and more on the Eastside.
Totally made up.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Must be that $15 minimum wage.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I knew SanFran before the big tech boom and it was great, now it's this weird place were people are all excited about making the world a better place and all they do in reality is serve their ego.
We don't want that, so go away, find another place to pollute with your broken thinking.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
California has bad politics that penalize companies.
* poor electrical grid
* blackouts
* far, far, left crazies - unfriendly to companies
* labor laws that are too far to the left
* High taxation
* High real estate costs
* High cost of living
You know, there are smart people all over the country outside California too where a $150K home is larger than a $400K home near SF.
Just sayin'.
OTOH, we have plenty of tech jobs where I live in the south east, provided you aren't an a-hole to your employer. After all, it is a "right-to-work" area, so not getting along with the company will get your ass fired.
You couldn't pay me enough to live in Silicon Valley. Seattle is a much nicer place to live -- at least for now.
I grew up in the trailer parks of Issaquah/Bellevue/Redmond. When I was in gradeschool we toured the MS campus in Redmond. They told us we were the future, not, over the past decade, I've found myself priced out of my hometown for miles in all directions..... These implants are bringing all the stupid-ass laws with them up from Cali too. I'm not even allowed to smoke in my own car anymore.
A few things that have happened over the past 5 years...
Tolling bridges to Seattle.
Tripling of bus-fare.
Sin-tax on booze a smokes.
Sin tax on carbonated beverages.
My rent has increased 40%
Malls and shopping centers growing like weeds.
Legalized recreational pot-smoking.
I'm hoping for another bubble busting so I can watch all of the hodey-hodey-ho Seattle tech workers forced back into that old job at McStarbucks so they can finally reap what they've sown.
Or maybe tightening of the foreign work visa programs so some local boys and girls can join in the fun. Seriously, Bellevue, and Redmond have become so predominately Indian it's hard to believe MS is even giving lip service to the rules. I have a few friends who have refused to move away (it really is a stunningly beautiful place to call home) and each and every one of them is contracting at various tech companies, constantly hunting for the next contract, and barley scraping by. These guys have degrees, portfolios, and experience. It makes no difference.
Seriously, even if I suddenly start pulling 1m+/year, I'll still not be able to afford a home across from the trailerpark I grew up in.
I really love the pacific NW, but I'm certain I'll soon be forced to leave, but hey, thanks for all the spiffy tech jobs.
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
I hear their pedophile mayor wants to increase the tax base of rich white people!
One guess as to what is truly behind the tech divorce with North Carolina. I guess the sports industry isn't the only one to boycott. Just another example of the many prices paid for intolerance and bigotry.
Lots of people who grew up near SF with techie parents now work in Seattle and fly "home" nearly every weekend. The airlines must be making a fortune on that route, IMHO.And for what it's worth those techie parents are getting ready to retire with enough funds to stay in their home as long as they remain reasonably healthy.
Just because they are not all moving immediately, or all at once, does not mean it's not happening. Detroit was the Technical center of automotive for a very long time, and the crash took a couple decades. It happened, despite all of the politicians and unions claiming it was impossible. Those wheels were turning for a very long time and Detroit and Michigan ignored the warning signs. More and more taxes, more and more regulations and fees. Once the automotive companies established outside of Michigan, it took only a few years to evacuate everything.
If you don't like the Detroit example, try Pennsylvania or West Virginia.
The majority of growth in the big tech companies is not happening in SV. Much is going to Texas and other southern states with lower taxes and as with most IT a lot is going overseas. Jobs here are not growing much if at all (depends on who's reports you read) and that stagnation isn't a good sign.
Your argument is fallacious logic, relying on an untruth that there are only two options. Dying Rust Belt|East Bumfuck or Massively taxed regions like Seattle or Silicon valley. I refuse to list the myriad of cities in the US in between those extremes.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
People arguing taxes too high are like those arguing helicopter sales are not plentiful because they are gas guzzlers. If you can't afford the housing in Silicon Valley, taxes are a non-issue.
mfwright@batnet.com
If I ever move back to Cali, I'll take the city of Los Angeles, thanks very much.
Best weather in the world. Actual culture - because of the movie industry, LA is effectively the subconscious mind off the entire anglophone world. The average woman is an order of magnitude more attractive than in SF, and people in general are way more friendly.
SF still has better public transport. But LA is building subways faster than any other city in America, whereas SF now takes 20+ years to build a 2 mile "stubway". And Uber means you can go to the bar in LA without recruiting a designated driver or living in fear of the gestapo.