NEW from me: California keeps losing tech jobs
Amidst the AI boom, the US is in the largest sustained drawdown in tech employment since the dot-com bust
And what tech jobs remain continue to leave California for the rest of the US
The US continues bleeding tech jobs—tech employment is down 90k from its 2023 peak and down more than 10k over the last year. That’s a massive slowdown from the 300k/year growth pace seen in the 2022 tech boom or the 150k/year pace regularly sustained in the years before COVID pic.twitter.com/PGi8VomWBn
— Joey Politano 🏳️🌈 (@JosephPolitano) October 19, 2025
The slowdown in tech means that SF has seen the largest job losses of any metro area in the US, with employment dropping by 11.6k over the last year and down 3.8% since COVID
Nearby San Jose MSA has also suffered, though not quite as harshly, losing 2k jobs over the last year pic.twitter.com/0bPsfX3i0l
— Joey Politano 🏳️🌈 (@JosephPolitano) October 19, 2025
The growth in Silicon Valley compensation been an important alleviating factor for California’s state government, which is extremely dependent on Silicon Valley to fund public services. Revenues have bounced back from 2023 lows though remain below 2022 highs. pic.twitter.com/xspUn07wC8
— Joey Politano 🏳️🌈 (@JosephPolitano) October 19, 2025
Recent steps to address California’s high cost of living are likely to slow the state’s pace of tech job losses, but aren’t yet enough to stop the process.
Yet the bigger unresolved question is to what degree AI will replace or complement existing tech jobs in the long run pic.twitter.com/tO2ticlu5n
— Joey Politano 🏳️🌈 (@JosephPolitano) October 19, 2025