Unemployment May Be Up, but the Future Is Bright
First the bad news. Unemployment in Silicon Valley rose 0.2 percent in January, from 10.6 percent to 10.8 percent. There’s a reason for that, according to California’s Employment Development Department. The holiday season ended, and with it the temporary jobs held by hundreds of people who worked to cover the Christmas rush on retail. That coincided with the end of the agricultural season, so people who went out to pick crops found themselves looking for work as well.
There is some good news too, however. Some 3,700 jobs were added, with over half of them by high tech industry. There were also 40,000 job ads in January, 10,000 more than January 2010. More options are out there, with jobs ranging across industries, from high tech to retail. There are jobs to be had at Apple and Google, but also jobs at the new Safeway in Campbell, 170 of them, in fact. The unemployment numbers may have gone up a notch or two, but they always do in January. The next report already looks more promising.
