Bay Area Employment: the Gathering Gloom

This guy lost billions but is happy today.

The national labor statistics are strong--the unemployment rate "fell to 3.5% in September" and initial jobless claims are a low 217,000--but in the Bay Area we're unsettled, and not just because of Tuesday's 5.1 earthquake in San Jose.

Two years ago the "real" economy--manufacturing, retail, energy--shrunk due to the pandemic. Now the dominant Silicon Valley tech sector, which prospered during work-from-home, has shown signs of weakness. Once-plentiful job postings are being pulled back, and the market for high-flying stocks that provide the Bay Area with much of its juice has cratered.

Recent news reports display the change in mood.

200 Oracle layoffs add to Bay Area’s job cuts

Biotech and tech job cuts widen in Bay Area as companies chop workers

Seagate to cut 3,000 jobs in restructuring as demand slows

There are 2.5 million jobs in the Bay Area, and the announcement of a few thousand layoffs is just anecdotal. Nevertheless, they add to the gloom.

I also look at the efforts to have companies focus on goals other than profits, market share, growth, and shareholder returns.

The explosion of companies adopting Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) goals is a 21st century phenomenon. If they help get companies back on their feet, then they have merit. If ESG and DEI are distractions, they will find out to their detriment soon enough.