Bay Area Job Market Better Than In Other California Areas

Accountants on the job hunt in California should pay extra attention to the San Francisco Bay and Silicon Valley areas. Robert Half International’s head of recruiting for the state said opportunities are likely to remain more plentiful in the northern California hubs over the next six months than other parts of the state. Brett Good, Half’s District President Southern California/Arizona, says that San Francisco and Silicon Valley were less affected by slowing real estate development than other areas. Moreover, Good also said that technology firms that are a staple of the Bay Area economy have kept busy on projects that started before the meltdown, not to mention supplementary assignments targeting efficiency. “From a technology perspective, for organizations involved in upgrades, these projects have long tails,” Good said. “You can’t just cut them off.  He added: “There are some companies that are just starting projects. (All) this has kept technology organizations puddling along. The question is whether San Francisco will (in the more distant future) fall into what the other major metropolitan areas are facing now if new projects aren’t coming along.” A recent Half survey of CFOs – released earlier this month – underscored Good’s comments. Eight percent of San Francisco CFOs responding to the quarterly Half Hiring Index said that they expected to reduce staff while 6 percent said they would probably hire employees. To be sure, an Index where fewer CFOs are likely to hire workers than make cuts generally reflects a weak job market. But the minus 2 differential for San Francisco was much better than negative 7 percent differentials in Los Angeles and San Diego and a negative 5 percent gap in Sacramento.