Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Tech-Related Employment Climbing

The numbers are in, and as we have been reporting here at EPJ, hiring is strong in the tech sector, especially around Silicon Valley. WSJ reports:
California's economic recovery is kicking into higher gear, with unexpectedly strong job growth propelled by a pickup in technology hiring, as the nation's biggest and richest state starts to beat back its formidable budget deficit.

The state added 90,600 jobs in the first quarter, more than the increase of 82,600 for all of 2010, according to seasonally adjusted data from its Employment Development Department that exceeded most analysts' estimates...

An increase of 5.3% in information technology jobs in March outpaced all other industries, as companies, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, continued to expand amid booming demand for social networking, clean technology and other services.

LinkedIn Corp., for instance, said it had nearly tripled its global work force to 1,300 as of the end of the first quarter from 500 at the beginning of 2010, with most of the gains at the social-networking firm's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. LinkedIn saw its revenue roughly double over the same time, said Steve Cadigan, vice president of people operations.

Solaria Corp., a maker of photovoltaic solar panels in Fremont, Calif., has boosted its payroll to 110 from 40 a year ago and plans to hire as many as 40 more people by the end of 2011, amid soaring demand for solar energy, said Chief Executive Dan Shugar.

The tech growth is boosting retail businesses in Silicon Valley. The vacancy rate for major shopping centers in Santa Clara County has dropped to 5.5% this year from 6.7% in 2010 and 7.1% in 2009, according to estimates by Terranomics, a retail research arm of commercial real-estate concern Cassidy Turley Inc.
Not only is hiring up, but so are wages for software engineers.When the Fed prints money, it doesn't hit the entire economy at once, it hits different sectors. Clearly, Silicon Valley is an early recipient of new Fed money. In other words, Silicon Valley employees will likely be ahead of the price inflation curve.

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