People stand in front of the Facebook app owner Metaplatform logo at Hacker Way in Menlo Park in 2021.
SAN JOSE — Silicon Valley’s hiring boom is winding down, and while the region is still adding workers, the pace of hiring in 2023 was significantly slower than the previous year, a new report finds.
Although employment is slowing, median household income is on the rise, according to a new report released Monday, the Silicon Valley Index 2024.
Despite the backlash, Silicon Valley’s economy remains relatively healthy, according to a new assessment from Joint Venture Silicon Valley, which released a new report on the region’s economic mosaic.
“The economy is still growing,” said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a San Jose-based think tank.
The economic recovery is occurring despite the gloomy drumbeat of layoffs and reductions in office space in the tech industry.
According to the Index 2024 report, employment is shifting into low gear in Silicon Valley. The index defines Silicon Valley as Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, the southern region of Alameda County, including Fremont, and parts of Santa Cruz County.
Silicon Valley added about 2,700 jobs in the year to June 2023, according to the Silicon Valley Index 2024 report. This is a significant slowdown from the 88,000 jobs the region added in the year to June 2022.
Much of that is happening through cuts and layoffs in the region’s technology industry.
“The pandemic was a bonanza for the tech industry, which overhired,” Hancock said. “Our largest tech employers have done some realignment. There’s been some overhiring. Tech companies are doing some right-sizing.”
Despite slowing job growth, Silicon Valley household incomes have shown some improvement, the report said.
In 2022, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the median household income in Silicon Valley was $149,588. This was higher than the 2021 level of the income benchmark, but lower than the 2020 level, the 2024 Index report determined.
As the industry tries to contain costs and appease Wall Street, the tech industry is now embracing what Hancock describes as the latest “fad.”
“In Silicon Valley, we have what we call fads,” Hancock said. “The latest fad is efficiency. Efficiency efforts are well underway. Tech companies are running lean and mean.”
