Hiring in the Bay Area has decreased by 25.3% since February, when concerns over the coronavirus began ramping up in the region, according to LinkedIn hiring data analyzed by the Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s Institute for Regional Studies.
That's compared to a 1.2% decline in January, prior to local and state shelter‐in‐place orders and widespread COVID‐19 cases in the U.S.
The report found that the Bay Area hiring drop since February is greater than the national average, which is at 21%. Nationwide, all but one industry experienced a hiring decline in April. The hardware and networking segment actually rose 2%, data showed.
That said, other metropolitan areas suffered greater declines than the Bay Area, with hiring in Chicago down by 40%, Los Angeles by 38% and Phoenix slipping by 37%.
“Silicon Valley’s dense concentration of semiconductor, ISP, wireless, and networking equipment companies was likely a factor in keeping the hiring decline more muted here than elsewhere,” Rachel Massaro, the institute’s director of research, said in a news release.