Silicon Valley's unemployment rate increased by 3.2% in January due in part to a drop in seasonal employment and a significant spike in COVID-19 cases that occurred before the holidays.
Employers in Silicon Valley cut nearly 13,400 workers between mid-December and mid-January, according to Robin Doran, a spokesperson for Joint Venture Silicon Valley.
That decline represents more than half of the job gains experienced between mid-October and mid-December of last year.
The region -- identified as Santa Clara County and the southern portions of Alameda and San Mateo counties -- saw the total number of unemployed workers rise to 47,500 by mid-January, representing a decrease of nearly 5,000 since mid-December.
Total employment in the region is up nearly 171,000 since April 2020, and the initial job losses associated with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Joint Venture Silicon Valley, this represents job growth of 13.5% over that nine-month period. The January unemployment rate in Silicon Valley was 2.5 percentage points lower than January 2021, and 8.8 percentage points lower than April 2020.
Steven is so sad everyone moved on from COVID. This guy can’t quit the masks and boosters. People on the Left starving for any indication lockdowns and masks were justified. But, all data points to lockdowns and masks were ineffective and harmful. Even WaPo and NYT are catching on.
I’d appreciate a better explanation of how covid caused the job cuts. I don’t get it from my reading of the article.