Silicon Valley unemployment soars to 11% in March 2009, highest rate in 30 years.
Silicon Valley’s unemployment rate jumped to a record 11 percent last month, and more than 100,000 people are now unemployed and looking for work in the area, the state reported Friday. The question now is how many more will join them before the recession ends.
No one claims to have the answer, but some analysts say there are inklings that the job losses may slow over the next few months, even though the region’s jobless rate rose from a revised 10.2 percent in February.
The March rate is the highest since the state began keeping comparable records for the valley in 1990, the Employment Development Department said.
California’s rate reached 11.2 percent in March, the fourth-highest in the country and the highest since 1976, which is as far back as EDD records go.
“It’s the most brutal labor market I’ve seen in 30 years,” said Michael Bernick, a San Francisco lawyer who was the EDD’s director from 1999 to 2004 and who has volunteered for decades with job training groups.
But there are also some encouraging signs. Stock prices of high-tech firms are up, as semiconductor companies such as Intel report an uptick in orders and a possible bottoming of the business free fall.
Housing at the lower end of the market is beginning to sell, with multiple offers becoming more common. Banks are reporting profits.
And amid the layoffs, a lot of hiring is going on, though less than usual, said former EDD director Bernick.
“The numbers we look at are net numbers,” he said. “Within that, there is an enormous amount of job creation and job destruction going on. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s considerable job creation and hiring going on in Santa Clara County. There’s just more loss.”
Still, the job losses in this recession pale in comparison with the dot-com collapse, when 123,900 jobs were lost during one 12-month period. The valley has shed 36,200 jobs in the past year.