Silicon Valley’s job boom has hit a pause, and while the region is still adding employment, the pace of hiring in 2023 was markedly slower than the year before, a new report shows.
People stand in front of a logo for Facebook app owner Meta Platforms on Hacker Way in Menlo Park, 2021.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 the year before, a new report shows.
Overall, Silicon Valley’s economy remains relatively healthy, according to the new assessment from Joint Venture Silicon Valley, the San Jose think tank that released the new report on the region’s economic mosaic.Nonetheless, 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.
“The pandemic was a bonanza for the tech industry, which did some over-hiring,” Hancock said. “Our largest tech employers did some re-calibrating. Tech companies have been doing some right-sizing.” While the current slowdown — and even outright job losses — in tech is brutal and painful for affected workers, the current bout of employment reductions isn’t nearly as severe as it was during the dot-com meltdown.
This means tech job losses in the Bay Area during the dot-com debacle were three times greater than the number of tech jobs lost in the nine-county region in 2023.