Today’s report about a 6.7 percent drop in software-related job postings over the past five years for San Jose, California should surprise no one. This shift is consistent with two themes that we’ve reported on and points to a tipping point. Have we reached “peak” Silicon Valley?
First, the cost of doing business — from wages, to rents, to costs, is much higher in Silicon Valley and other established tech centers than across the rest of America.
Second, as one industry after the next continues to embrace new technologies, every company becomes a “tech” company. Or maybe they always were, but just not in the strictest sense of the word. Certainly a 100 year-old business like Parker-Hannifin is arguably just as innovative, or more so, than many Silicon Valley companies.
“Although Silicon Valley will almost certainly remain among the nation’s top tech hubs for decades to come, the world of software jobs is flattening — both by industry and geography,” writes Richard Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor. “The big winners in coming years are likely to be the lower-cost U.S. metros with fast-growing tech clusters that have attracted a rising share of software job postings in recent years.”
Please send feedback, news tips, or story suggestions to Anna Hensel via email — and be sure to bookmark our Heartland Tech Channel.
Thanks for reading,
Blaise Zerega
Editor in Chief
P.S. Please enjoy this video from Entrepreneur, “You Don’t Need to Be in Silicon Valley to Grow Your Business.”
FROM THE HEARTLAND TECH CHANNEL
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Beyond VB
Pittsburgh reimagines the business district
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Report: Michigan no longer a flyover state for venture capital
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Tech jobs are spreading to other parts of the country
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Lonely Photos of Daily Life in the Rust Belt
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