PUBLICATIONS ARCHIVE
Silicon Valley Index - 2011
February 14, 2011 - The 2011 Index reports the latest data and trends in economic development, workforce, housing, education, public health, land use, environment, governance, arts and culture and other sectors throughout Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties and portions of Alameda and Santa Cruz Counties. An accompanying Special Analysis section of the report each year takes a closer look at a particularly significant topic.
2009 was a rough year. We learned the hard way that Silicon Valley is not immune to the larger forces at work in the global economic recession. Like other regions, we have lost tens of thousands of jobs, absorbed thousands of home foreclosures, and seen our incomes decline. Despite our many strengths—from talented people to world-class technology—we could not insulate ourselves from the larger economic downturn.
THE CHALLENGE: Protecting the Climate and Growing the Economy. What if we could turn the climate change crisis into an opportunity to build a better world? That is the promise of Climate Prosperity—creating a better, more sustainable world for our children and grandchildren—and what this Greenprint for Silicon Valley is all about.
A system that readily equips Silicon Valley's workforce with new skills and opportunities to keep up with the changes in its innovative economy will be instrumental to the region's equitable growth and prosperity.
Read more: Special Analysis: Economic Restructuring and Workforce Transitions - 2009
Despite a job loss spike and other grim economic indicators, the rapidly growing cleantech sector foreshadows Silicon Valley's path out of the recession and its leading role in addressing the climate crisis. Adapting our domestic workforce to the necessary economic restructuring will be crucial to a resilient recovery.
Workforce Study - 2010
June 2, 2010 - Silicon Valley must adapt to the economic churn and changing needs of employers for a more skilled workforce in order to remain the epicenter of innovation and entrepreneurship, concludes this comprehensive new report on regional workforce development by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, NOVA, the San Mateo County Workforce Investment Board and work2future.
Cell phone service today is ubiquitous. A rapidly growing population has disconnected its landlines altogether. The cell phone–based E911 service is saving lives by automatically directing emergency workers to the scene of an accident, heart attack, or crime. Established businesses, entrepreneurial start-ups, and residential consumers are choosing locations by the quality of cell phone service.
Joint Venture’s Smart Health Task Force has worked for more than two years to introduce new efficiencies to the region’s health care sector by using information technology more effectively. The process has involved hundreds of leaders from the Valley’s health care providers, insurers, employers,and the broader community.
Read more: Smart Valley and Smart Health: A Final Report to the Community - 2008
Silicon Valley's most recent productivity gains, income increases, venture capital investment, and patent activity are promising indicators of a leading innovation economy. However, they will not isolate the region from the workforce challenges that globalization imposes, especially for mid-wage occupations.
Broad based growth in most sectors of the economy and expanding new venues for venture capital investment are encouraging signs for Silicon Valley. Nevertheless, trends in mid-level housing and city revenues do not seem promising, and our youth are not meeting the local demands of a competitive global economy.
The forces and opportunities of globalization are driving Silicon Valley's long-term transition from a powerhouse of industrial production to one of ideas. Our jobs, although modestly growing, are different, and our assets as a creative world center do not guarantee equitable dividends if our institutions do not adequately prepare our workforce for this demanding transition.
This year's report highlights the complex effects of globalization on our region, exemplified by productivity and per capita income gains despite job losses. Persisting health and education gaps, unaffordable housing, and disparities in income growth do not reflect Silicon Valley's reputation as a vibrant, prosperous community.
The vision of our Wireless Silicon Valley project is to provide a low-cost, high-speed, outdoor, wireless infrastructure that will be available for a variety of purposes---on streets and highways, in parks and plazas, at construction sites, in recreational areas and business parks, and on buses and trains.
Study Finds Offshoring Less Important Than Other Factors to Job Creation and Destruction in Bay Area
Main Street Silicon Valley: Shared Issues, Snapshots of Success and Models for Moving Forward - 2004
Main Street Silicon Valley is intended to help the 20 cities along El Camino Real/Monterey Highway
better understand the common challenges of this regional transportation corridor, highlight and leverage some of the
successful actions these communities have already taken, and identify tools and models that can guide
local cooperation to revitalize it.
This year's Index reports a deceleration in job losses, employment gains in some high-wage occupational clusters, and continued growth in regional productivity. Employment is robust in the health services industry and the biomedical industry cluster is becoming more concentrated in Silicon Valley as its employment grows relative to the nation.
Currently California faces an unprecedented budget shortfall. While fiscal deficits have faced many states, few have compared to California's, whose current deficit is larger than the budget shortfalls of all other states, combined.
Read more: Statement of Principles: California Budget and Tax Reform Initiative - 2004
Assists in evaluating existing and pending tax proposals against the principles of good tax policy.
Read more: Tax Prinicples Workbook: A tool for Critiquing Tax & Fiscal Proposals - 2003
Joint Venture partnered with the Valley’s three Workforce Investment Boards to convene a series of community forums on how Silicon Valley can do more to help the region’s youth prepare for the highly-skilled technology jobs that will drive our long-term economic growth. The there is a serious need to increase young people’s interest in technology professions and to connect them with career opportunities and information.
Silicon Valley is the world’s most dynamic economic region because it is a habitat for innovation and entrepreneurship. This paper addresses how short-term economic cycles, longer-term waves of innovation, and external economic shocks shape the Silicon Valley habitat. It outlines four action-based initiatives to rebuild Silicon Valley's economy, create more jobs, and improve the area's quality of life.
Read more: Building the Next Silicon Valley: Strategy and Actions - 2003
Several key economic indicators—including total jobs, average pay and venture capital investment—have returned to near 1998 levels. Productivity, however, has continued to increase, extending an upward trend that began almost a decade ago.
The future economic vitality of Silicon Valley will depend in part on the region’s ability to increase the local pool of well prepared, tech-savvy professionals. One key facet of this effort should involve working to fully develop the region’s “homegrown” high-tech talent, which would help prevent future shortages of technology workers and contribute to the sustainability of Silicon Valley communities.
Read more: Workforce Study: Connecting Today's Youth with Tomorrow's Technology - 2002
Converging revolutions in bio-, info- and nanotechnology will create new industries and will redefine a wide range of existing industries worldwide. This wave of innovation will fundamentally transform Silicon Valley’s economy and society.
Read more: Next Silicon Valley: Opportunities and Choices - 2002
The economy has lost jobs for the first time in nine years, but productivity and innovation continue. The slowing economy has
eased pressure on housing prices, commercial lease rates and the labor market.
Silicon Valley is the world’s most dynamic economic region because it is a habitat for innovation and entrepreneurship. This paper addresses how short-term economic cycles, longer-term waves of innovation, and external economic shocks shape the Silicon Valley habitat. It outlines four action-based initiatives to rebuild Silicon Valley's economy, create more jobs, and improve the area's quality of life.
Read more: Next Silicon Valley: Riding the Waves of Innovation - 2001
Numbers show that although Silicon Valley developers are using land more efficiently, real estate affordability is still decreasing in both the residential and commercial markets.
As part of a study on the rapidly evolving Internet economy, A.T. Kearney surveyed and interviewed approximately 100 Internet executives and experts to understand recent trends in globalization and how they are impacting the location choices of Internet companies. Silicon Valley continues to play a critical role in leading the Internet economy and is likely to solidify its position as the hub of technical innovation.
The workforce shortage is an increasingly critical impediment to the growth of high-tech companies
in Silicon Valley and threatens the economic vitality of the region. This Workforce Study found that
the current workforce gap is 31 to 37 percent of the high-tech industry demand in Silicon Valley.
This year's index reveals an emerging Digital Divide in Silicon Valley and challenges us to connect all of our community to the unparalleled opportunities that the new Digital Economy offers.
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Joint Venture produces and provides supporting documents and research for a wide array of Silicon Valley interests. We also help to support our initiatives through the publication of the annual Silicon Valley Index and a variety of other periodic reports and white papers.
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