Ranks Of Employed Swell To All-Time High In San Francisco
The recession is a distant memory for many San Francisco Bay Area residents. Nowhere is the turnaround in employment stronger than in San Francisco itself. According to SocketSite, "the number of employed residents in San Francisco has increased by 88,900 since January of 2010, a 20 percent jump in a little over five years." Companies like Twitter, Dropbox, and Salesforce have created a high-tech hiring frenzy and employment boom. But, not all the news is good across various industries.
The Gap, which is headquartered in San Francisco, recently announced layoffs. A total of 250 workers in San Francisco and at 175 stores will be laid off, according to CBSnews.com. Meanwhile, Fitbit, which is also based in San Francisco, has dozens of openings listed on its jobs page. From hardware engineering to recruiting to marketing, the wearables fitness company is looking to onboard staff at a rapid pace. The company raised $841.2 million in its initial public offering, according to a Fitbit press release. Some of those funds will support the company's hiring efforts.
The rise of Fitbit and fall of Gap epitomize a trend in the San Francisco Bay Area, where traditional retail employers that were previously secure now stand on shakey ground and once-risky tech startups now rule the employment landscape. Overall, "there are now 60,100 more people living in San Francisco with paychecks than there were at the height of the dot-com peak in 2000, at which point the unemployment rate measured 3 percent with a labor force of 480,000, versus 544,700 last month."
The addition of nearly 20,000 employed San Francisco residents in the past year explains the city's housing woes that have created a sort of "class warfare" among renters vying for suitable residence. Clearly, San Francisco job growth has thoroughly outstripped the city's construction of new residences. Each year, there are fewer options for housing relative to jobs, and those seeking employment must be mindful of the situation if they want to live near their job. BART, Caltrain and buses hired by tech companies offer commuting relief for those living outside the city.
Residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, Greg is a patented inventor, technology enthusiast and intrepid journalist. He finds inspiration in diverse experiences, organizations, people and places -- from restaurants to politics, movies, music and, most of all, his daughter.
