Silicon Valley is apparently still losing jobs, but more slowly than in recent years, according to the latest annual report from Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a nonprofit organization.
And if and when job growth returns, the biomedical industry may play a bigger role than in the past, the report indicates.
According to the most recent federal data available, Silicon Valley lost jobs from the second quarter of 2002 through the second quarter of 2003 at only half the rate -- 5 percent -- of the period a year-earlier.
Since mid-2003, anecdotal evidence suggests the rate of loss has continued to slow, giving Silicon Valley's economic and business leaders reason to hope that the rebound in spending for technology that is becoming evident may soon translate to renewed job growth.
"The trend has continued; we see a continued slowing of job loss," said Doug Henton, the president of Collaborative Economics, a research company in Mountain View, California, that conducted the study.
Notably, Silicon Valley biomedical technology companies, which include many of the nation's biotechnology leaders, lost the fewest jobs.
And the survey showed that for the first time, venture capital investment in biotechnology in Silicon Valley equaled investment in software companies.
"We are now seeing the early signs of yet another Silicon Valley reinvention," according to the report, which is called The 2004 Index of Silicon Valley and is to be released Monday.
Henton said the challenge for Silicon Valley was to provide the training and education necessary to ensure that workers were prepared for the new jobs.
Through last year's second quarter, Silicon Valley had lost approximately 202,000 jobs from the peak of employment in the second quarter 2001, when the region's work force was 1.38 million.
For the third year in a row, average pay declined in Silicon Valley, but by a smaller margin than the previous year.
Last year, average pay in the area declined 1.5 percent, to US$62,400.
That is in contrast to a 6 percent decline the year before, after accounting for inflation. The area's average pay peak was US$81,700 in 2000.
Even with the declines, average pay in Silicon Valley is 60 percent higher than the average for the rest of country, which is US$37,300.
The valley's cost of living, though, is 47 percent higher than the national average.
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