After Facebook’s botched initial public offering, observers feared that Silicon Valley would plunge into a downturn. But in June, the Bay Area job market came back in a big way, adding  16,900 jobs.
If it seems like it might be getting tougher to hire employees in the tech sector, where there’s always a war for the best talent, this could explain why.
The nine-county region — which includes San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and surrounding cities — produced its best one-month job growth since September 2011. It was buoyed by tech jobs and growth in the East Bay, Michael Bernick, a research fellow with the Milken Institute, told the San Jose Mercury News. He said that tech firms, social media companies and internet commerce companies are leading the recovery.
The East Bay (Oakland) added 7,400 jobs, while the South Bay (San Jose) added 4,000 and the San Francisco-San Mateo area added 6,100, according to the California Employment Development Department. Beacon Economics said a quarter of the gains were due to tech.
The comeback in June compared to weakness in May, when only 3,800 jobs were added, and April, when the region grew by 2,400 jobs. That was sharply slower than in the winter and fall.
California itself added 38,300 jobs last month, and the Bay Area accounted for 44 percent of the job gains. It was also 21 percent of the job gains for the entire nation. Statewide, the unemployment rate is 10.7 percent, compared with 8.5 percent in the Bay Area. That is down slightly from 8.6 percent in May in the Bay Area.
[Image credit: 1008racing]