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San Francisco, whose economy has recently experienced ups and downs as steep as the city's famous hills, is mounting a jobs comeback.
Beyond the vagaries of the economy, the City by the Bay offers 360 degrees of attractions, including scads of high culture and design, nearby natural wonders, and an unusual concentration of smart and creative people. Then there's the unique climate: Foggy here, sunny there, cool in the summer, warm in the fall and desert-dry from May through September.
The median home price in the Bay Area was $656,700 in the fourth quarter of 2004, representing a 14.3 percent increase over 12 months earlier. Unfortunately, housing isn't the only high expense in San Francisco. Utilities, transportation, healthcare, food, sales tax and state/local income tax are all well above the national average here. These factors conspire to make the Bay Area's cost of living the second highest in the nation after the New York City metro area. This is one reason "a lot of people packed up and left town when the job market was at its bleakest" in the early 2000s, says Jim Gardner, managing editor of the San Francisco Business Times. About 60,000 working-age residents left the area between 2000 and 2002.
But the scene has brightened considerably. Metro San Francisco unemployment dropped a full percentage point from January 2004 to January 2005 to 5.3 percent. And the number of Bay Area jobs is projected to increase by 1.5 percent to 2 percent in 2005.
In many occupations, employment prospects are bright. "We've seen dozens of companies in many industries that encountered full-scale skills shortages in 2004," says Gardner. Those with skills in accounting and finance are in particular demand, as are mid-level professionals with three to eight years of experience in many disciplines.
Skill shortages may have emerged partly as a result of heightened employer expectations. "In the 1990s, companies ramped up almost regardless of qualifications and talent," Gardner says. "Now companies would rather struggle forward and even give up business rather than hire the wrong person."
The software industry is still soft, but "a number of biotech companies are about to bring products to market," Gardner adds. Companies like Genentech and Gilead Sciences may be hiring in the sciences, manufacturing, marketing and sales, for example.
Industries projected to hire in significant numbers over the next few years include business services, construction and mining, education, and, like nearly everywhere else in the country, healthcare. Kaiser Permanente of Northern California has had many recent openings in San Francisco.
Financial services firms hiring of late include Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual. And two local dotcom superstars that somehow avoided becoming exploding supernovas have been ramping up their staffs: Google and eBay.