The San Francisco Bay area is experiencing a surge in job opportunities. For anyone who has been around the technology industry for a few years, this may sound awfully familiar. It could be a sequel to the dot-com bubble that crashed and burned at the turn of the last century. On the other hand, I think it constitutes a sustainable trend that bodes well for the next couple of years to come.
The ultimate outcome may matter to long-term investors, but job seekers, especially those who have been suffering through very difficult local markets, should sit up and take notice. Silicon Valley is a bright spot in the national employment picture and, according to the California Economic Development Department, it was the primary reason that California added 100,000 new jobs in February 2011.
The Business Confidence Survey conducted by the Bay Area Council for the first quarter of 2011 underscored that positive outlook, with 31 percent of employers confirming plans to add to their payrolls within the year, the best results since July 2007. According to Jim Wunderman, president of the Council, "We're seeing optimism and confidence in all private industry sectors."
In addition to extending beyond the technology sector, the good news has reached smaller companies, with Wunderman calling small and medium sized businesses "another bright spot" in the hiring forecast.
The improved climate is apparent among some of the big names as well.
On the heels of the 10 percent pay raise that it handed out across the board in 2010, Google intends to make 2011 the best hiring year in its history, bettering its previous record of 6,200 new hires in 2007. Google's YouTube subsidiary has announced plans to increase its own hiring by more than 30 percent over last year's pace.
Facebook may not be as big as Google, but it has some big plans of its own. The company currently has 2,000 employees, mostly in California, but has been growing at an annual rate of around 50 percent and recently acquired a new Menlo Park campus for its operations. Reading between the lines, the fact that permitting for the new facility allows 3,600 employees supports the notion that Facebook is in the midst of a growth surge.
Harking back to the heady days of the boom, some employers report frenzied competition for talent, fuelled in part by an influx of venture capital. Redfin, a five-year-old online real estate brokerage with 200 employees, qualifies as a stable old-timer in this environment. For the first time, it is having trouble competing with the lavish offerings of newcomers like Zynga, the hot start-up in the social gaming sphere. Until recently, Zynga's offers to new graduates were almost twice the amount of a typical Redfin offer. Redfin has been forced to keep pace in order to remain competitive.
Smaller companies have tried to keep pace as well. The Wall Street Journal recently profiled Limos.com, a company that hopes to increase its staff by 50 percent this year. After losing out on too many qualified candidates, Limos.com has turned to "speed hiring" to fill its needs, compressing the hiring process into one day. At the end of that day, the company is prepared to make the right person an offer on the spot.
Even in Silicon Valley, companies do not live by technology alone. There are opportunities in sales, marketing, human resources and finance. You do not have to be a cutting-edge programmer to think that this might be a good time to dust off your resume and give some attention to your job-search skills. The time may be right to take a closer look at one of the few bright spots in the national job market.
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