Business JOURNAL
S I L I C O N VA L L E Y / SA N J O S E
BY TIMOTHY ROBERTS 50,000. The Santa Cruz-Wattroberts@bizjournals.com sonville Metropolitan Statistical Area has 97,700 jobs, Santa Cruz County had according to the study. 2,200 more nonfarm jobs in San Jose, which is in the August than it did a year ago, largest market category, a jump of 2.3 percent. ranks just 64th out of 87 marThat’s progress in a region kets in that category. where job gains have been Among other markets in the a rarity and gives the Santa area, Salinas ranks 73rd out Cruz-Watsonville job market of 102 markets in the 100,000 a 5 percent unemployment to 250,000 job category. It has rate, a percentage point bet- seen the total number of jobs ter than the state overall. rise by 100 over the last year And that’s enough of a for a 0.1 percent increase. boost to make Santa CruzWatsonville the 43rd hottest mid-size job market out of 126 in the nation. The ranking comes from a review by American City Business Journals, the parent company of the Business Journal, of the pace of job growth and the level of unemployment in 367 markets across the country. The ratings are based on preCiel Cirillo liminary data for the second Santa Cruz Redevelopment quarter of 2005 as compiled Agency by the U.S. Bureau of Labor. The markets were graded on raw change in the number Santa Cruz is hoping to of jobs over a 12-month pe- boost its fortunes by luring riod, percentage change in more industrial design jobs. the number of jobs over 12 The Santa Cruz Redevelopmonths, the current unem- ment Agency recently hired ployment rate and change in retired Raytech Corp. CEO the unemployment rate from Cliff Warren to study how a year ago. The markets were the city would go about that. grouped according to size: Among his suggestions is Over 250,000, 100,000-250,000, the creation of a Santa Cruz 50,000-100,000 and less than Design Center to be located
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SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 VOL. 20, NO. 23
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Santa Cruz market is moving up, study of job growth shows
downtown and funded by corporations and foundations at a cost of about $300,000 a year. The center would attract “creative and leading designers” to Santa Cruz, according to a Power Point presentation on the plan. “The idea is to reach out to companies around the world that might be interested in establishing a design component here,” says Ciel Cirillo, executive director of the Redevelopment Agency. The Santa Cruz quality of life, student population, available space and skilled labor force, would be big attractions for designers, she says. In attempting to lure design jobs to Santa Cruz, the city is doing what a lot of communities around the world are doing, says Kim Walesh, Assistant Director of the Office of Economic Development in San Jose. “Design, art, culture, media and software are all a growing economic activity in the world economy,” she says. The hottest mid-size market was Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which experienced a 5.9 percent increase in nonfarm employment over the last year, an increase of 3,000 jobs. The State of Idaho has been pushing its technology appeal, and today nearly a quarter of its economy is technology based, says Karl Tueller, deputy director of the Idaho Department of Commerce & Labor. Alaska Airlines even offers a non-stop flight from San Jose to Boise, which is home to a large Hewlett-Packard Co. printing and imaging plant, and is the headquarters of Micron Technologies Inc., maker of semiconductor memory devices. Says Mr. Tueller, “We’ve moved from potato chips to silicon chips.” Coeur d’Alene and nearby St. George, Utah, are benefiting from a strong influx of newcomers to the Interior West, many of them coming from California. The Internet has helped to make smaller towns more accessible, while California’s problems have made them more desirable, says Larry Swanson, director of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana. “California had always been the magnet drawing people to the West,” he says “When its magnetism dropped off, people started looking elsewhere.” G. SCOTT THOMAS of American City Business Journals contributed to this article. TIMOTHY ROBERTS covers public policy, corporate governance and Internet security for the Business Journal.
‘The idea is to reach out to companies around the world that might be interested in establishing a design component here..’
Reprinted with permission from The Business Journal