"No amount of brainpower or world-class technology could save Silicon Valley last year from the wrath of the recession.
In the San Francisco Bay Area's high-tech hub, the economic downturn caused jobs, patents and venture capital investment to decline in 2009, according to a study released in February by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network and Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The survey, titled the '2010 Index of Silicon Valley,' also shows office vacancy at its highest rate since 1998 as the focus has shifted from software to green energy, the media, biotech and medical devices.
With the loss of 90,000 jobs between the second quarters of 2008 and 2009, the cutting-edge innovators of Silicon Valley 'could not insulate ourselves from the larger economic downturn,' said Russell Hancock, Joint Venture president and CEO, and Silicon Valley Community Foundation CEO Emmett Carson, in a joint statement.
'At a time when we need to engage more actively in the global economy, the very foundations for that engagement are weakening,' according to the statement. 'We're"