Saturday Stats: best places for STEM grads 2016

There is no place in the US that will reward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) degrees more than the San Jose area when it comes to salary. However, after you factor in the astronomical cost of living here are we still #1?  A recent NerdWallet study looked at the 330 largest metro areas and analyzed salaries, concentration of STEM jobs, unemployment, and average rent.

The study ranked the San Jose area as #2 on the list. Who was #1? Huntsville, Alabama (what???). I don't think I would agree with how the attributes were ranked. I think few people would argue against Silicon Valley being the #1 place for tech jobs despite the high cost of living. San Jose has more STEM employees per 1,000 jobs than any other metro. It has the highest income for tech employees, $122,398 versus a $84,222 average for the study (and $107,722 for San Francisco). It also has far and away the best ecosystem for tech. If you have a STEM degree here, you're likely multiple calls and LinkedIn invites from recruiters each month. For more details and the full list, hit the source link below.

Source: NerdWallet

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the top place for minority-owned businesses in the US

We all know San Jose is one of the most diverse cities on the planet and also one of the best cities for business. So it should not come as a big surprise that San Jose is the best place for minority-owned businesses.

At $83,406/year, San Jose had the highest minority median income in the US. The average revenue per minority-owned business in our area comes in at $317,979 and there are 45.74 minority-owned businesses per 1,000 residents. 6th on the list was San Francisco and New York was all the way down at #51.

Source: Nerdwallet, SJ Economy News

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the second best city for young professionals

Forbes has completed their annual study on the best cities for young professionals, and we fared quite well. Criteria for the study included the quality of jobs for graduates, salaries, job growth, unemployment rates, and cost of living in the 100 largest metro areas. The San Jose Metro came in second on their list despite the astronomical cost of living. When it came to salaries, we were #1 with a median salary of $78,400 for workers with five years of experience or less. You can check out the full list over here.

In related news, the SJSV Chamber is hosting a special event specifically for young professionals in Silicon Valley. This is part of their "SV Next" initiative and you can learn more about that below.

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San Jose, Calif— The San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce is proud to see San Jose included in yet another prominent national list, this time in Forbes’ 20 Best Cities for Young Professionals.

“San Jose and the Silicon Valley continue to be the place for educated young professionals to not only start their career but to also take it to the next level,” said Matt Mahood, San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce President & CEO. “That is why the SJSV Chamber is relaunching our young professionals program, SV Next, to assist in helping them network, develop professionally and give back to their communities.”

SV Next is comprised of young professionals from Silicon Valley companies—including NowCFO, SAP, and Ameriprise Financial—between the ages of 21 and 39. It officially relaunches with a networking mixer on April 20, at Scott’s Seafood and offers young professionals a chance to meet, mingle, network and connect as well as meet established professionals who can become their mentors.

“SV Next strives to be the one-stop-shop for young professionals in Silicon Valley,” said Chloe Verrey, SV Next Chair. “Our programming addresses the needs of mid-career individuals, those entering the workforce and transplants to Silicon Valley. Establishing meaningful connections and providing professional development experiences for our members within the context of our Valley will enable them to advance their careers.”

Young professionals have always been one of the Valley's greatest assets. Just last year, San Jose's own institution of higher learning—San Jose State University—cemented its value to Silicon Valley employers when Jobvite named it one of the top workforce provider to some of the Valley's heavyweights, including Apple, Cisco and Hewlett Packard. San Jose also holds a greater share of total STEM graduates [29%], compared to the national average of 15%, and higher even than the average held by STEM global leader Finland [22%]—a crucial key for young professionals looking to attain high-paying jobs within the advanced industry sectors.

"There are many opportunities for young professionals in this Valley," Verrey said. “With the diversity of companies and people in San Jose, it's no surprise that we made this list.”

SV Next is looking to engage young professionals in unique networking and professional development opportunities. In 2016, the group aims at working with partners focused on leadership training, professional advancement and community service. For additional information or to join, email here.

Saturday Stats: our traffic still sucks

Shocker, our traffic is still terrible. At least we are slightly better off than four US cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Seattle. So while you are crawling at 1mph on 101 during peak rush hour, just keep telling yourself it could be worse.

Below is a list of the 20 US cities with the worst traffic in 2015. To see the global list, hit the source link at the bottom.

1. Los Angeles, 41%
2. San Francisco, 36%
3. New York, 33%
4. Seattle, Wash., 31%
5. San Jose, 30%
6. Honolulu, Hawaii, 29%
7. Miami, Fla., 28%
8. (tie) Washington, D.C.; Portland, Ore.; and Chicago, Ill., 26%
11. (tie) Houston, Texas and Boston, Mass., 25%
13. (tie) Atlanta, Ga.; San Diego; and Tampa, Fla., 24%
16. (tie) Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Baton Rouge, La., 23%
19. (tie) Nashville, Tenn.; New Orleans, La.; Austin, Texas; and Las Vegas, Nev., 22%

Source: SVBJ

The 9 largest rental developments completed last year in San Jose

San Jose's development efforts are focused more on jobs than housing these days, but lets not forget how much housing is still built in San Jose each year. In 2015, the 9 largest rental projects in our city added 2,317 new apartments to San Jose. To see which projects made the list and take a peek inside each of these developments, head to this blog post.

Source: RENTCafe

Saturday Stats: San Jose metro has the best job growth in 2015

Private sector jobs in the San Jose area grew by a staggering 4.8% last year. That is enough to beat out every other metro in the United States by a significant margin. Texas usually dominates these rankings, but Austin came in second with 4.4% growth in 2015. San Francisco and New York did not make the top 10. The only other California metro on the list is Riverside at #7.

Average private sector job growth for the nation is 2.3%, meaning San Jose grew its job market at more than double the national rate. I hope the growth can continue for a at least another year or two. The tech market is beginning to cool a bit, but there is still huge potential for job growth in the area.

Source: SVBJ, Headlight Data

Saturday Stats: San Jose ranked as the #10 best place to live in the US

U.S. News & World Report has gone through the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States and ranked them in terms of best places to live. The study looked at factors such as affordability, job prospects, and quality of life. Thousands of surveys were factored into the study as well as statistics from the Census Bureau, the FBI, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

San Jose came in a respectable 10th place on the list. The obvious criteria that prevented our city from being higher is affordability. Hit the source link below for the full list as well as more details.

Source: U.S. News & World Report, hat tip to Barclay Livker for sending this in

2016 U.S. News Best Places to Live Rankings – Top 10
Denver, CO
Austin, TX
Fayetteville, AR
Raleigh-Durham, NC
Colorado Springs, CO
Boise, ID
Seattle, WA
Washington, DC
San Francisco, CA
San Jose, CA

Saturday Stats: San Jose has the Longest Life Expectancy of all US Metro Areas

San Jose has always ranked highly in terms of healthiest metros. Combine that with the great moderate weather and enough income to afford proper medical care, and you will naturally get to this latest stat. The San Jose metro has the highest life expectancy in the United States, clocking in at 82.7 years.

San Jose's smoking rate is only 10.3% versus a national average of 20%. Obesity in San Jose is at 20.5% versus a national average of 27%. Another interesting stat is that the San Jose Metro has the lowest mortality rate from all causes of any other Bay Area region.

So in conclusion, if you want to live a long time you are in the right place!

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: 2015 Meta Post!

It's that time of year again to look back and see the top "Saturday Stats" of 2015. The list is yet again quite impressive. San Jose ranked as the top city for salaries (both before and after cost of living adjustments), tech jobs, job opportunities, job market, advanced industry sector employment, tech hub innovation, college students, and have the most future-ready economy in the US. Those were just the #1 rankings. There are many more below.

You can also see the full list of "Saturday Stats" (including previous years) with article links over here.

Rank	Stat	Source	Year	Notes
#1-10	Top 10 Happiest Cities in the World	National Geographic	2015	SF and NY did not rank
#13	Best City to Find a Job	WalletHub	2015	SF #20, NY #90
#7	Healthiest Place in America	NerdWallet	2015	SF #2, NY #15
#3	Highest GDP Per Capita in the World	SiliconBeat	2015	SF #12
#1	Advanced Industry Sector Employment	SiliconBeat	2015	SF #5
#1	Most Innovative Tech Hub in the US	NerdWallet	2015	SF #3
#6	Most Racially and Linguistically Diverse City in the US	WalletHub	2015	NY #4, SF #13, Oakland #14
#1	Best Place for Tech Jobs	Nerdwallet	2015	SF #6, NY #67
#1	Top Metro for Job Opportunities	Glassdoor	2015
#1	Hottest Job Market	SiliconBeat	2015	SF #2
#3	Best City to Raise a Family In	Healthline	2015	SF #9
#7	Economic Growth between 2008 and 2014	WalletHub	2015	SF #15, Oakland #13
#2	Best City to Trick-or-treat In	Zillow	2015	SF #1
#1	Highest Salary after Cost of Living Adjustments	SVBJ	2015	SF #9
#1	Future-ready City Economy America	Dell	2015	SF #2, NY #3
#1	"Richest City" in America (Greatest Gross Metropolitan Product [GMP])	Bloomberg	2015	SF #3, NY #8
#1	Best Mid-sized Region for College Students	American Institute for Economic Research	2015
#7	Best Place to Own a Home	Porch	2015	SF #47, NY #26

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the 7th Best Place to Own a Home in America

A new survey conducted by Porch and Redfin ranked San Jose as the 7th best city in the US to own a home. They looked at a variety of factors such as health, education, economy, walkability, safety, and traffic. Note that this study is based on people's opinions and not objective metrics.

San Jose scored very highly in healthy living (#2), climate (#5), educational opportunity (#8), and walkability (#4). All of those sound about right to me except for walkability as there are only specific neighborhoods that have high walk scores.

The lowest scores were commute (#22), and I expected lower on this one, real estate confidence (#65), and security & safety (#29). Again these are people's perceptions. I would disagree with the safety ranking as statistically San Jose is one of the safest large cities in the world.

The biggest surprise was that economic opportunity only ranked #15. By any objective criteria this should easily be #1 for the country.

Overall, San Francisco ranked #47 on the list while New York can in at #26. For the full list hit the link below.

Source: Porch

Saturday Stats: College Students Graduating From "Top-25" Schools are Flocking to San Jose

A recent report by Earnst shows how graduates at the top 25 universities in the country are flocking to the west coast. One very interesting stat is that 57% of recent grads in the San Jose Metro studied somewhere else. In comparison that number is just 31% for New York and 25% for Boston. The only Metro that beat San Jose was San Francisco at 58%.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: San Jose Metro is the #1 Mid-sized Region for College Students

The American Institute for Economic Research ranked San Jose as the top metro area for prospective collect students in a recent study. They defined a mid-sized metro as having a population between 1 and 2.5 million and the criteria included work opportunities, cost of rent, culture, diversity, and access to bars and restaurants.

Not surprisingly, we excelled at metrics tied to jobs, the economy, at STEM (science, technology, and math). San Jose was also first in diversity and #4 when it comes to bars and restaurants. However, our metro struggled when it came to rent costs and entertainment.

Austin came in second place followed by Pittsburgh, Raleigh, and Salt Lake City. You can access our profile right over here.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: 18% of New California Jobs in October Went to the San Jose Metro

I'm sure you have been noticing a bit more traffic on the road over the last few months. The Bay Area economy is surging, and the San Jose Metro is leading the pack. There were a grand total of 41,200 jobs added to the California economy last month. 7,600 were in the Santa Clara County. Despite making up only 5% of California's population, San Jose landed 18% of the state's new jobs. San Francisco and San Mateo combined gained 4,600 jobs and the East Bay scored 3,400 jobs.

Of those new 7,600 jobs in the San Jose Metro, 2,300 were high-paying tech jobs. Now would be a good time to focus additional investment into infrastructure, we're going to need it.

Source: SVBJ 

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the "Richest" and Most Productive Metroplitan Area in the United States

Bloomberg analyzed the 100 largest metros in the US and ranked them by Gross Metropolitan Product (GMP) per capita. Essentially this is how much value or output the average resident contributes to the economy. The greater the GMP, the more money you are likely to be making if you live in that area.

The San Jose Metro ranked #1 on the list by a significant margin. San Jose's Gross Metropolitan Product per resident was an astounding $105,482. Bridgeport, Connecticut came in second with $94,349. In third place was San Francisco with $80,643. New York was 8th with $70,830.

Source: Bloomberg

Saturday Stats: San Jose has the Most Future-Ready Economy in the Nation

At the 2015 Strategic Innovation Summit held by Harvard University and Dell, San Jose was proclaimed as the most future-ready economy in the country. Their definition of a future-ready economy is one that has sustainable economic output and growth potential. There are three key attributes that the study looked for:

1.) Human capital, or people equipped with the right skills to drive meaningful social and economic change.
2.) Commerce from sustainable business opportunities to continue improving entire economies for year to come. This includes collaboration, such as the formation of public-private partnerships.
3.) Infrastructure prepared to support people, businesses, and technology needed to drive growth and change.

San Jose scored well above average when it comes to human capital, having strong salaries, educational achievements, and by far the highest number of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupations per capita. San Jose also nailed it on commerce, having a collaborative and innovation-driven economy. Where we lost some big points was with infrastructure, particularly traffic congestion and poor public transit. Despite that, we still took the top position in the study with San Francisco coming in second and Washington DC in 3rd place.

Source: Dell, SJ Economy Newsletter

Top 25 Future Ready Economies

1. San Jose, CA
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Washington, DC
4. Boston, MA
5. Austin, TX
6. Raleigh, NC
7. Seattle, WA
8. Denver, CO
9. Portland, OR
10. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
11. New York, NY
12. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
13. Houston, TX
14. Atlanta, GA
15. Charlotte, NC
16. San Diego, CA
17. Chicago, IL
18. Louisville, KY
19. Salt Lake City, UT
20. Des Moines, IA
21. Los Angeles, CA
22. Pittsburgh, PA
23. Kansas City, MO
24. Columbus, OH
25. Philadelphia, PA

Saturday Stats: Even After Cost of Living Adjustments, San Jose Pay is Still #1

Most people know that San Jose salaries are the highest in the country. Another well known fact is that our cost of living is also one of the highest in the country. So the big question is whether our high cost of living negates our high salaries. According to the latest stats from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the answer is... No.

The average pay in San Jose is $75,770 per year, #1 in the country. To put that in perspective, the average pay for the #2 city on the list (San Francisco) is $64,990. 

After you factor in cost of living, San Jose's average pay drops to $62,110, which is still enough for it to be the #1 highest-paying city in the country. San Francisco drops to $53,580, bringing it all the way down to #9 on the list. Durham ended up being the city closest to San Jose in the #2 spot with an average pay of $58,780 after factoring in the cost of living adjustments.

So there you have it. Even after factoring in sky-high rents and other expenses, we are still better off salary-wise than the rest of the country.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: Best Cities to Trick-or-Treat 2015

San Jose has reached an all-time high in the list of "Best Cities to Trick-or-Treat!" Zillow creates this list using several variables such as Zillow Home Value Index, population density, Walk Score, local crime data, and the percentage of the population under the age of 15. This should theoretically provide the cities that provide "the most candy, in the least amount of time, with the fewest safety risks."

For 2015, San Jose ranked #2 on the list! Last year San Jose was #5, and the year before that we were #4. Within San Jose the top neighborhoods for trick-or-treating were Cambrian Park, Almaden Valley, Willow Glen, Blossom Valley, and the Rose Garden.

To see the other cities that made the list, just scroll down or hit the source link.

Source: Zillow

Saturday Stats: San Jose's Economic Growth is #1 in the Bay Area

Of all the cities in the country with more than 300,000 residents, San Jose came in 7th in terms of economic growth between 2008 and 2014. In the Bay Area, San Jose was king of the castle. Oakland came in 13th place and San Francisco was 15th.

Metrics included income growth, unemployment rate decrease, and housing prices. I should also note that this study was for individual cities and not metro areas, making the results even more impressive.

For mid-sized cities of 100,000-300,000 residents, Santa Clara, Fremont, and Sunnyvale make the top 10. For cities under 100,000 residents, Milpitas, Mountain View, and Redwood City were in the top 15.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: San Jose Metro has Nation's Strongest Job Market!

The South Bay has the strongest job market in the US based on a new government report. In the 12 month period that ended in July, total payroll employment increased by 6.2%, giving us the fastest growing job market by a huge margin. Tacoma came in second at 5% job growth, while the San Francisco and Salt Lake City metros were tried for third at 4.4%. The East Bay did not rank in the top 10 and had a gain of 2.2%.

To add more color on this data, over the last year 60,400 jobs were added in the San Jose Metro. Half of them were high-tech jobs (presumably with high salaries). We're not just adding tons of jobs, we're adding tons of great jobs.

Source: Siliconbeat

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the 3rd Best City to Raise a Family!

A recent study done by Healthline looked at a variety of factors such as job prospects, public schools, health care, and lifestyle amenities to come up with a list of the 10 best cities to raise a family in. San Jose came in at a very respectable 3rd place. Dallas took the top spot while Boston was second. San Francisco barely made the list at 9th place.

Source: Healthline, hat tip to Alex Shoor for sending this in!