We produce "snapshots" of California's regions, using EconoVue's database to illustrate trends. We host on-going regional workshops in which we present these findings. This section provides the snapshots and information on upcoming workshops.
Regional Economic Snapshots
Silicon Valley
- Silicon Valley, Overview, 2011
- Silicon Valley, Manufacturing, 2011
- Silicon Valley, Professional Services, 2011
- Silicon Valley, Retail Sector, 2011
- Silicon Valley, Administrative Services, 2011
- San Jose, 2nd Quarter 2011
Central Coast
- Kings County, 2nd Quarter 2011
- San Luis Obispo County, 2nd Quarter 2011
- Santa Barbara County, 2nd Quarter 2011
- Ventura County, 2nd Quarter 2011
Regional Workshops
- No upcoming workshops
Silicon Valley, Overview, 2011Download a pdf of this snapshot
Local Area Profile
Silicon Valley is located in the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area and is composed of 3-1/2 of the 9 Bay Area counties and 41 of the 100 Bay Area cities. These counties include San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and the southern part of Alameda county. Dominant sectors include those associated with the design, development and manufacture of computer components and systems.
The area has experienced significant job losses during the recession years, but during the past year, has shown a modest recovery across 75% of industry sectors.
Past Year: Recovery
Overall, EconoVue’s Dun and Bradstreet® database shows that Silicon Valley saw a modest 2.7% gain in employment from 2010 to 2011. Here’s how this breaks down:
- The Good News: 22 sectors showed positive growth of 5.3% in employment between 2010 and 2011, comprising 74% of all jobs in the Valley. What’s more, 8 of the largest 10 employment sectors (comprising 78% of Valley employment) all experienced positive growth. These 8 sectors include professional services, retail, health care, public admin/education, administrative/business services, construction, services and information-based.
- The Bad News: 6 sectors experienced a 3.8% decline in employment between 2010 and 2011. These sectors comprise 26% of all jobs in Silicon Valley. These sectors include: manufacturing, wholesale, eating/drinking, warehousing, clean/green and utilities.
Past Five Years: Major Job Losses
- Looking back to 2006, the picture is not so rosy. The Valley has 16.5% fewer jobs than it did 5 years ago. The majority (58.7% or almost 200,000) of the lost jobs were in the manufacturing and professional services sectors.
- Only one sector, Administrative/Business Services, bucked the trend during this same time, growing by 55%, adding 38,000 new jobs to the economy. These new companies are small in size, comprised of the self-employed and sole proprietors, with most being home-based businesses. It is important to note that due to the small size of these businesses, it is likely that they do not run payroll and thus this employment is not being counted by other databases that use payroll data.
Posted By: EconoVue Services, Posted On: 11/14/2011
Source: EconoVue Services, featuring Dun & Bradstreet 2009-2011, and National Establishment Time Series, 1990-2008
Tags: Silicon Valley Economy, Santa Clara County Economy, Alameda County Economy, Santa Cruz County Economy, San Mateo County Economy, California Economy Trends, San Jose Economy