Region Leads Rebound in Technology Jobs

July 8, 2010
By Pui-Wing Tam, Wall Street Journal

Technology jobs in Silicon Valley appear to be bouncing back more strongly than in the rest of the nation, in an upbeat signal for the local economy.

Technology jobs in Silicon Valley appear to be bouncing back more strongly than in the rest of the nation, in an upbeat signal for the local economy.

Driven by improved demand for tech goods world-wide, technology giants such as Intel Corp. and Google Inc. have said they are stepping up recruiting efforts. And with more start-ups snagging venture-capital funding, smaller tech companies here are ramping up their headcount.

"Right now, I'm overwhelmed with 30-plus clients and over 100 openings," says Robert Greene, a San Mateo-based recruiter who helps place engineers at tech start-ups. In contrast, he says his firm only had 10 clients that were hiring last November.

The change began about six months ago, he says. Now "I'm seeing [job] candidates getting multiple offers and salaries going up," says Mr. Greene. He adds that his firm, which was a two-person business for the past few years, has hired two additional recruiters in 2010 to cope with the surge in activity.

In a sign of how Silicon Valley's tech job market has rebounded more strongly than elsewhere, tech job postings for the region on technology job site Dice.com grew to 4,467 openings as of early July, up 70% from 2,630 a year earlier, according to the website. Tech job postings nationally increased at a lesser rate—36%—to 66,672 from 48,993 over the same period, says Dice.

Tech job salaries in Silicon Valley remain the nation's highest, even though they declined slightly in the recession last year. According to Dice, Silicon Valley's average tech salary declined about 1% to an annual $96,299 last year from a year earlier, while the average tech salary nationally increased about 1% to an annual $78,845.

Tom Silver, a Dice senior vice president, says the revival makes Silicon Valley "one of the strongest, if not the strongest, tech job market in the country." In the last 30 to 60 days, he adds, more contract recruiters have reappeared in Silicon Valley and been in contact with Dice to say they have job assignments to fill.

One start-up hunting for talent is GetJar Inc., a San Mateo company that runs an independent online mobile phone application store. Fresh off an $11 million round of funding last month, GetJar Chief Executive Ilja Laurs says his roughly 30-person firm plans to beef up to 50 staffers by year end and grow to 100 people by late next year.

Mr. Laurs says the start-up primarily intends to hire engineers with skills in Android development and statistical modeling. "It's pretty competitive to hire here," he says of Silicon Valley. It helps that this area still has the world's largest concentration of technical talent, he says.

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