ASML Moving Santa Clara office to San Jose

ASML is a supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment that is currently based in Santa Clara at 4211 Burton Drive. The company is growing quickly (specifically this division that was formerly Brion Technologies) and has decided to move to 92,000 SQFT at "THE Campus" on Trimble Road. This office complex benefited from a $26 million upgrade last year and sits in a prime location in the middle of the Golden Triangle (the largest tech cluster in the world). For more info, hit the source link below.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: Best & Worst Cities for Finding a Job

WallethHub has put together a list of the best and worst cities to find a job in the US. The company analyzed the 150 largest cities in the world across 16 key metrics. San Jose ended up as the 13th best city to find a job. Our city was 1st in terms of monthly median starting salary, 18th in employment growth, 20th in job opportunities, and 28th in crime. San Francisco was 7 spots below us in 20th place overall and New York City was 90th on the list. For the full list of rankings, head over to the source link below.

Source: WalletHub

Saturday Stats: 2014 End-of-the-Year Meta Post!

Its that time of the year again where we can look back and see all of the accolades San Jose has collected in 2014. This year's list is the longest I have compiled so far. Thank you to everyone that has sent in links for these articles!

This year we have gotten everything from the smartest city, the best big city for jobs, the best city for small business, the city with the highest pay, and even the happiest city to work in. For the first time we even landed on a "coolest city" list.

Check out the impressive meta-list below and for links to the articles head over to this Google doc.

#1	Best City to Flip a House	24/7 Wall Street	2014	SF #2
#1	Smartest City in America	TODAY Show	2014
#9	City with Momentum in the World	Jones Lang LaSalle	2014	SF #1, NY #6
#2	Top Performing Rental Market in the Country	SVBJ	2014	SF #3
#9	Best City for Female Entrepreneurs	Nerdwallet	2014	SF #2
#1	Apartment Boom Town	SpareFoot	2014	SF #8
#5	Best City for Overall Well-Being	USAToday	2014	SF #9
#3	Lowest obesity rate for metros larger than 1 million people	Gallop	2014	SF #3
#11	Top City for Millennials to Live, Work, and Play	Huff Post Collecge	2014	SF #5, NY #1
#1	Best Big City for Jobs	Forbes	2014	SF #2, NY #7
#2	Safest City of Driving	NBC	2014	NY #1, SF did not rank
#1	Best City for Small Business	Biz2Credit	2014	SF #5, NY #7
#6	Healthiest City in the US	ACSM	2014	SF #5, NY #24
#3	Most Upward Mobile City in the US	The Atlantic	2014	SF #5, NY #10
#1	Happiest City to Work In	CareerBliss	2014	SF #3
#1	Best City to Work In	Glassdoor	2014	SF #2, NY did not rank
#1	Best City for STEM Graduates	NerdWallet	2014	SF #5
#16	America's Coolest City 2014	Forbes	2014	SF #5, NY #11
#1	Most Expensive Metro in the US	SocketSite	2014	SF #2
#19	Top City for Culture	PropertyShark	2014	SF #16, NY #13
#7	Top Place in the US to Cool Off Before Summer Ends	SpareFoot	2014
#2	Best Job Market in the US for Recent Grads	The Atlantic	2014	SF #1, NY #28
#7	Most Educated City in the US	WalletHub	2014	SF #14, NY #51
#5	Best City to Trick-or-treat In	Zillow	2014	SF #1
#1	Easiest City for Finding a Job	Forbes	2014	SF and NY did not rank
#1	City with the Top Median Pay	Forbes	2014	SF #2, NY #8

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #1 City For Median Pay

Payscale looked at the US cities that took home the largest (and smallest) paychecks and its no secret who is sitting at the top of the list. Payscale looked at early career, mid-career, and overall median pay for employees with at least a bachelor's degree.

In the San Jose metro, the median salary is an astronomical $103,500 with mid-career pay hitting $142,600. San Francisco came in at a distant second with median pay clocking $82,200. New York was surprisingly in 8th place with a median pay of $70,700.

To see the full list and a slideshow, just head over to the link below.

Source: Forbes

$120 Million Santana Row Office Project is a Go

Last week Federal Realty started working on their latest project at Santana Row--a six-story 232,000 SQFT office building next to the CineArts Movie Theater. The building is designed with loft-style soaring ceilings and the large floor plates that contemporary Silicon Valley companies love these days. The new office will also add one extra retail space (probably a cafe) and net an additional 500 parking spaces that can be used by shoppers during evenings and weekends.

Also on tap is an additional 500,000 SQFT of office space across two more buildings, one of which features 30,000 SQFT of retail. These are in the city approvals stage, so we won't be seeing shovels for either of them any time soon. When complete, they will finish the original vision for Santana Row. Fortunately, Federal Realty still has plenty of expansion options across the street.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: #1 Easiest City For Finding a Job

In order to find the easiest and hardest cities for finding jobs, Indeed.com looked at the population of each metro and compared it to the number of job listings in the area. With 123 advertised jobs for every 1,000 residents, San Jose took the cake by a mile. The runner up was Raleigh, North Carolina with 88 openings for every 1,000 residents. Washington, DC came third (87 jobs per 1,000 residents) followed by Boston (83) and Denver (80).

Source: Forbes

Saturday Stats: San Jose Metro Tech Salaries Top San Francisco

Average salaries for the tech industry have risen meteorically over the last year. The average compensation for a tech worker in San Francisco is now $156,518. What could be crazier than that? Well, the average compensation in the San Jose Metro is $196,000!

Before your head explodes at that figure, note this is average compensation not median compensation. Execs wearing hoodies made of platinum thread and unicorn leather are factored into the formula. Speaking of hoodies, thanks to Mark Zuckerberg's $3.3 billion in stock options the average compensation for the mid-Peninsula is $291,497.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #1 Place for STEM Graduates!

Today we have another one of those Saturday Stats to really be proud of. According to NerdWallet--which is based in SF by the way--San Jose is the #1 place in the United States for STEM jobs (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math).

It wasn't even close. They looked at three main criteria: the mean wage for STEM occupations (25%), the size of the STEM industry (50%), and the median gross rent (25%). Despite coming in the highest with the median gross rent (a big negative), San Jose's $111,745 mean wage and the fact that 17% of all jobs in San Jose are related to STEM gave us a towering lead in the overall score.

The data is below, and is well worth taking a look. Only three other areas in California made the cut. San Francisco was #5, Sacramento was #15, and San Diego was #20.

Source: NerdWallet, Thanks to Christopher Rein for sending this in.

Saturday Stats: San Jose Named Best City to Work In!

San Jose continues to get recognition for being a great city to work in. An analysis by Glassdoor ranks the San Jose metro as the #1 place in the country for employee satisfaction. Huge tech salaries and career opportunities were the key contributors to the ranking. This is also the second consecutive year where San Jose is placed at the top of the hill in this study.

San Francisco ranked #2, Washington DC was #3, and New York was miles away at #28. Make sure to watch the short video below put together by Glassdoor.

Sources: Glassdoor, SVBJ, Business Insider, Hat tip to Arturo Perez

 

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the Happiest City to Work in for 2014!

San Jose just earned another badge for work-related accomplishments. CareerBliss has proclaimed that San Jose is rated the happiest city to work in. This rating came from hundreds of thousands of employee reviews where professionals rated how they felt about where they worked and how it impacted their overall happiness. Key factors such as relationships with bosses, co-workers, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, and their daily tasks were all factored into the reviews.

San Francisco came in third while New York did not rank in the Top 10. Why do I always bring up these two cities? There are really the two in the US we are competing with the most when in comes to job opportunities. Have a look at the full Top 10 below.

Source: CareerBliss, Hat Tip to Barclay Livker for sending this in!

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #3 Most "Upward Mobile" City

Where are the best places to realize the American dream? Check out the list below. San Jose comes in as the 3rd most upwardly mobile region in the US. Absolute Upward Mobility tells us how children are able to stack up compared to their parents. Relative Mobility measures an employee's odds of moving up or down the income ladder. Note that while San Jose had the 3rd best Absolute Upward Mobility score, we were #1 in Relative Mobility.

San Francisco came in 5th place and New York rounded out the top 10.

Source: The Atlantic, Hat tip to Dan De La O.

Saturday Stats: San Jose Metro Unemployment Rate Drops

Silicon Valley's unemployment rate dropped again last month to a stellar 5.4% (5.3% if you eliminate San Benito County, not sure why it is included in these figures). This is down from 6.3% in March. This confirms what many of us already know, the local job market is on fire--in a good way.

How does that 5.4% compare? California's average unemployment rate is 7.3% and the nation's unemployment rate is 5.9%. This means we are outperforming both the state and country in terms of the jobs market.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: San Jose Metro is the #1 Best Big City for Jobs!

San Jose just nailed the top stop in a study listing the best big cities for jobs in Forbes. Our metro area had 982,000 jobs in 2013, job growth was 4.3% last year, and job growth over the last 5 years was 8.1%.

All 398 metropolitan statistical areas were put through their paces in the survey, and the largest 66 metros were all competing with San Jose. Our neighbor San Francisco came in second (their 2013 job growth was 3.6%) and New York City came in 7th (2013 job growth was 2.2%).

This is a huge statistical win for San Jose. Sometimes you have to separate out the real numbers from all of the media hype going around for other regions.

Source: Forbes, Hat tip to Dan De La O

RetailNext Tripling Space Downtown

RetailNext is company that analyzes shopping habits and behaviors, even going so far as creating "heatmaps" showing where shoppers are spending most of their time in a store. They currently have a 50 people in their 6,800 SQFT Downtown San Jose headquarters at 99 Almaden. They have decided to nearly triple their space to a full floor at 60 South Market, which will bring them up to 17,108 SQFT.

They were quoted saying that staying Downtown was their #1 priority. They want access to amenities and the Caltrain stop but do not want to pay the high rents at Palo Alto and Mountain View. Hopefully we'll see a lot more companies make similar decisions!

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: San Jose Ranks as 2nd Most "Thriving" City in America

The Daily Beast has put together a list of urban areas whose economies have been improving faster than most in the US. San Jose ranks 2nd on the list! They looked only at the 100 largest metros and compared their population growth (20% weight), employment and earnings (30% weight), market strength (20% weight), infrastructure (15% weight), and intellectual capital (15% weight). Below are the results!

America's Thriving Cities

1.) Irvine

2.) San Jose

3.) Fremont

4.) Austin

5.) San Francisco

6.) Seattle

7.) Plano

8.) Gilbert

9.) Orlando

10.) San Diego

Source: The Daily Beast, Hat tip to Dan

Saturday Stats: San Jose Ranks as the 5th Hardest Working City in America

The Movoto real estate blog has taken a stab at determining which cities are the hardest working. They used seven different criteria in their research: average hours worked per week, unemployment rate, commute time, employed workers per household, hours volunteered per year, lack of sleep, and cost of living. After crunching all of the numbers, San Jose ranked as the 5th hardest working city in the US. SF was right behind us at #6, and NYC came in at #11. You can get more information regarding all of the criteria by going to the blog post, and the full list is below:


Top 10 Hardest Working Cities

1. Seattle, WA
2. Arlington, TX
3. Fort Worth, TX
4. Austin, TX
5. San Jose, CA
6. San Francisco, CA
7. Dallas, TX
8. Virginia Beach, VA
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Houston, TX

Click the image below to Enlarge:



Source: Movoto

Saturday Stats: San Jose Ranked as the Best City to Work In!!!

Today we have yet another huge statistical win, Glassdoor ranked San Jose as the best city to work in! This is such a huge accomplishment that I didn't even bother with a source link, the full article is below. SF ranked #2, followed by Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Utah. NYC, the alpha city of the US (and the world) ranked #32.

San Jose Best City To Work In; Glassdoor Employment Satisfaction Report Card By City

Posted by Glassdoor Team • June 21st, 2013 • 67 Comments

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You can learn a lot about a city from others’ experiences thanks to social media, whether it’s the best restaurants to eat, which neighborhoods are quietest, or even what the weather is like at any given moment. But, what about what it’s like to work in 50 of the largest cities across the country? If you’re thinking about getting a new job in a different city, you might want to consider what others have to say and where employees are most satisfied.

To help, the Glassdoor Employment Satisfaction Report Card by City¹ offers an inside look into what it’s like to work in 50 of the largest U.S. metros. Not only does this report offer a comparison of overall employment satisfaction by city, but it goes in-depth to also compare compensation and benefits satisfaction, senior management satisfaction, expectations for company outlook, and the number of employers hiring per city.

This report is based on U.S. metro population and at least 500 reviews per metro shared on Glassdoor by local employees over the past year.

Top 5 Cities for Employment Satisfaction:

The Bay Area takes the lead as San Jose, CA (3.4 average employment satisfaction rating) and San Francisco, CA (3.4) take the top two spots. Interestingly, both cities are home to five companies that made Glassdoor’s Top 50 Best Places to Work for 2013 report – San Jose (Google #6, LinkedIn #14, Agilent Technologies #30, Intel#31, Apple #34) & San Francisco (Facebook #1, Riverbed Technology #3, Chevron #13, Workday #19,Salesforce.com #22).

Rounding out the top five cities for overall employment satisfaction are Seattle, WA (3.4), Salt Lake City, UT (3.3), and Washington, DC (3.3). (Ratings based on a 5-point scale: 1.0=very dissatisfied, 3.0=OK, 5.0=very satisfied).

Check out the complete results:

 

¹For simplicity of reporting, ratings are rounded to the nearest tenth. To determine rank, actual ratings extend to the thousandth.

Want to know even more about jobs hiring in the ten highest-rated cities? Check out just some of the most in-demand jobs:

#1: San Jose, CA

In-Demand Jobs:

• Software Engineer
• Program Manager
• Sales Associate

#2: San Francisco, CA

In-Demand Jobs:

• Software Engineer
• Online Sales Representative
• Sales Associate

#3: Seattle, WA

In-Demand Jobs:

• Software Engineer
• Sales Associate
• Barista

#4: Salt Lake City, UT

In-Demand Jobs:

• Software Engineer
• Sales Associate
• Customer Service Representative

#5: Washington, DC

In-Demand Jobs:

• Program Manager
• Systems Engineer
• Registered Nurse

#6: Orlando, FL

In-Demand Jobs:

• Physical Therapist
• Customer Service Representative
• Restaurant employee (bartender, line cook)

#7: San Diego, CA

In-Demand Jobs:

• Software Engineer
• Registered Nurse
• Personal Trainer

#8: Boston, MA

In-Demand Jobs:

• Business Analyst
• Financial Analyst
• Software Engineer

#9: Memphis, TN

In-Demand Jobs:

• Registered Nurse
• Sales Associate
• Event Specialist

#10: Austin, TX

In-Demand Jobs:

• Software Engineer
• Business Analyst
• Sales Associate

Note: Job titles represent just some of the most in-demand jobs per city; Based on at least 100 job listings per job title per city on Glassdoor as of 6/10/13.

San Jose is Named the Best Metro for STEM Grads

San Jose claims yet another national title, and this one is substantial. San Jose ranked as the top market in the country for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) jobs. Based on metrics such as percentage of total jobs that require STEM Bachelor degrees or higher, average salary, and overall salary, each market was given a particular score.

With 24% of San Jose jobs requiring a STEM degree, an average STEM job salary of $115,744, and a $69,794 average salary for all jobs... San Jose utterly destroyed the competition with an aggregate score of 97.5.  Washington came in second place with a score of 78.6. San Francisco took 4th place with 15% of jobs needing a STEM degree and a $104,041 average STEM salary... meaning if you are looking for a STEM career you will make almost $12,000 less in San Francisco (without including the additional 2% in taxes you will pay for city-wide health insurance).

The full top 10 list is below.

Source: SVBJ, Nerd Wallet

Top Ten Metro Areas for STEM Graduates

 1.    San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

The San Jose – Sunnyvale – Santa Clara metro area is a hub for STEM jobs in a variety of industries. As a major section of the Silicon Valley, the metro area is the headquarters for large technology employers like Intel, NetApp and Adobe Systems. The area also has high volumes of jobs in the manufacturing, healthcare and information industries. Santa Clara University’s School of Engineering offers high school students the chance to develop engineering knowledge with their SEED (Spring Engineering Education Days) and One Step Ahead programs. One Step Ahead is specifically designed to support female students in the GAINS (Girls Achieving in Non-Traditional Subjects)program.

2.    Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Despite being located in the political and governmental center of the US, the Washington – Arlington – Alexandria metro area is not just home to politicians and lobbyists. Plentiful and high value jobs in biotechnology, healthcare, computer systems design, software publishing, and science and technical consulting make it one of the best high-tech areas in the country. Large employers include Micron Technology Virginia, Computer Sciences Corporation, George Mason University and the Marine Corps Base Quantico. George Mason University’s STEM Accelerator program is dedicated to attracting and graduating more STEM majors in addition to helping them find employment in the STEM fields.

3.    Huntsville, AL

Huntsville receives a significant amount of economic support from the presence of Redstone Arsenal, the Army missile program facility and the home of the Marshall Space Flight Center. Huntsville has strong science, technology, architecture, engineering, and computer and math sciences industries.

4.    San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA

Known for its growing tech industry, San Francisco is a hotbed of STEM jobs.  The local universities emphasize STEM as well, and UC Berkeley has clubs devoted to LGBT STEM communities and mentorship of women in STEM.  With Silicon Valley nearby and SOMA just downtown, STEM grads will find plenty of tech companies to work with, including tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Dropbox and Twitter.

5.    Trenton-Ewing, NJ

Trenton was a major manufacturing center, and the city is now home to many government jobs.  Trenton’s biggest employer is the State of New Jersey.  The Center for Excellence in STEM Education has brought together a multidisciplinary team of educators, researchers and practitioners to determine STEM curriculum and learning techniques for pre-kindergarten through grade 20.

6.    Boulder, CO

Almost 17% of Boulder’s jobs require a STEM bachelor’s degree or higher.  Boulder is one of themost educated places in the United States, and the Colorado Collaborative for Girls in STEM, funded by the National Science Foundation, encourages girls to pursue STEM careers.  CU-Boulder has done groundbreaking research in student learning and curricular assessment through their Center for STEM Learning as well.

7.    Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

Seattle is known for its clean technology, life sciences and healthcare industries, all of which attract STEM workers.  The city educates its youth in STEM as well—the University of Washington runs Green Energy, a STEM camp for middle schoolers.  For networking and coordination between STEM groups, Washington STEM is a great resource for holistic STEM education, both in the classroom and outside.

8.    Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH

Boston’s healthcare and research industries create a high demand for STEM expertise in the city. Massachusetts General Hospital is a top employer in the city, and the city is home to more than fifty colleges and universities, earning it the nickname “America’s College Town.”  Boston’s colleges offer plenty of programs that enrich the STEM knowledge of local kids as well.  Northeastern University runs a summer STEM program for middle school students, and MIT offers an innovative Women’s Technology Program that enrolls high school girls in a rigorous STEM summer camp.

9.    Ann Arbor, MI

With the University of Michigan as Ann Arbor’s largest employer, it’s no wonder the city has plenty to offer STEM graduates.  Ann Arbor also has thriving manufacturing, healthcare, automotive and biomedical research industries.  This high-tech area also holds programs to enrich youth growing up in Ann Arbor—the M-STEM Academy at the University of Michigan allows outstanding K-12 students to take summer classes and offers stipends, research experience and internships.

10. Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, WA

The Tri-Cities economy is largely based on farming, wine, healthcare and the automotive industry.  The agriculture and healthcare industries require plenty of STEM knowledge, and the Washington State STEM Education Foundation has played a large role in emphasizing STEM education for publicly educated students.