Unemployment Soaring: Fleeing Silicon Valley

как бы не все весело оказывается.
наблюдаем дальше

This mornings’ WSJ has a story titled Silicon Valley’s Jobless Unplug From Tech. The story in on how former tech workers are switching careers and moving into health care, clean energy, and other fields.

It seems Silicon Valley in not just the tech capital but also the unemployment capital. According to the story, Silicon Valley’s unemployment rate of 12% is the highest in California if not the country. The unemployment rate is 3% higher than it was during the dot com bust. The piece is a stark reality of what is really going on in Silicon Valley; however, many fail to see or don’t want to see.

You hear the word “recovery” but recovery is not going back to the way things were (spending money you don’t have to keep up artificial lifestyles) nor is it going to be quick. Based on the people around me the tech boom is over. One of my neighbors who has raised $20 million for his startup (from prominent VCs) said he will probably have to shut down the company and layoff 100 people soon. He said there aren’t enough customers for this product despite the fact that more people are on the Web today. One of the reasons he sighted was just too much competition (everybody thinks they are the next Google – GOOG) and the influx of new companies into the space cannot be offset by the growth of the space.

Another casualty is Bernie Maloney, 46, who was laid off from Hewlett-Packard as a project manager last year after a 16-year career where he was making $175,000 excluding bonuses. Mr. Maloney has been looking for a tech job that would allow him to create and launch products. But job interviews have so far been “very thin for me,” he says.

My other neighbor is busy helping such companies that are trying to be more competitive in a global economy do just that. In most cases, this means moving money out of the Valley to other areas like North Dakota, Brazil, Eastern Europe, and of course India and China. He says billions have already moved out and that is just the beginning.

According to the WSJ piece, many are happy to leave tech. Minda Cutcher, 53, was laid off as a finance manager at Covad Communications last year after a decade. She launched her own financial-consultancy business for the elderly. She says that she doesn’t regret leaving tech after working in the industry for 30 years. “I did a real re-examination of my priorities,” she says. “I’m done with high tech and fancy titles. Now I’m going from high tech to high touch.”

Finally, my friend who left his big time Silicon Valley job for North Carolina says “I’m currently living in a brand new luxury house that sits on 1/4 of an acre next to a creek where my daughter plays with frogs and turtles every day. It reminds me of living in Saratoga along the Saratoga Creek. The house cost $350,000 but would set you back at least $1.5M in the Bay Area.”

By Daya Baran at July 31, 2009

source : Home - WebGuild.org

July 2009 IT Employment Index

http://www.techservealliance.org/research/it-employment-index/july2009_it_release.pdf

Как бы дружку не пришлось снова переезжать - Unemployment rate North Carolina - 11.2 % June 2009