Indicator Spotlight | August 5, 2026
Silicon Valley’s unemployment rate at 3.9%, with significant job growth in healthcare sector
By Danny Wessler
June 2026 employment data provide a snapshot of Silicon Valley’s labor market, including unemployment trends, comparisons with California and the nation, and shifts in employment across industries.
According to preliminary data recently released by the California Employment Development Department, Silicon Valley’s unemployment rate as of June 2026 was 3.9%. Silicon Valley (defined as Santa Clara and San Mateo counties) has a labor force of 1.43 million people, of whom 55,000 are currently unemployed and actively looking for work. The region’s unemployment rate is slightly higher than in San Francisco (3.7%), but lower than in California (5.2%) or the United States as a whole (4.4%).
Silicon Valley’s unemployment rate today is moderate by historical standards, consistent with what economists consider healthy friction in the labor market. The uptick in June (from 3.3% in May) is a normal seasonal fluctuation tied to the end of the academic year, as employment in the education sector typically falls between May and June before recovering in the fall. The relative stability of recent years follows a remarkably unstable period, when the unemployment rate hit a record 12.6% in April 2020 during the pandemic but then dropped to a near record low of 2.2% two years later, in May 2022. It climbed steadily from there, recording an annual average of 3.4% in 2023, 4.0% in 2024 and 4.2% in 2025, but has eased to an annual average of 3.8% through the first half of 2026.
The region’s unemployment rate is also among the lowest in California — all nine Bay Area counties fall below the statewide rate of 5.2%. San Mateo County has the lowest of any of the state's 58 counties, at 3.6%; San Francisco has the second lowest at 3.7%; and Santa Clara County is tied for third at 4.0%. The Bay Area stands in contrast to the Central Valley: every county in the San Joaquin Valley, the state’s agricultural heartland, has an unemployment rate above 6%. Imperial County, with an economy built largely on seasonal agricultural work, has the state’s highest unemployment rate at 17.6%.
Beyond the headline unemployment numbers, the changing composition of employment across industries in greater Silicon Valley tells a deeper story. The healthcare and social assistance sector employs more than 300,000 people in the region and has added more jobs than any other sector in recent years, growing by 4.6% since last June and 22.6% since before the pandemic — making it one of the few sectors that now employs more people than before the pandemic. Another is arts, entertainment, and recreation, which has made a remarkable comeback, growing 5.0% over the prior year and employing nearly 11% more people than early 2020.
The region also added at least 1,000 jobs over the past year in mining, logging, and construction (+5.8%), accommodation and food services (+3.5%), and manufacturing (+1.1%). Most of the increase in manufacturing jobs was in roles related to semiconductors, which grew 4.3% in the past year and 23.1% since before the pandemic. The region lost the most jobs in the government sector, which now employs 3,500 fewer people than a year ago. About half of the net loss was from a reduction in federal government jobs, which shrank by 7.1%, even though federal jobs make up less than a tenth of the region's public sector.
Explore more data on unemployment in Silicon Valley.
Notes: Silicon Valley includes Santa Clara and San Mateo counties unless otherwise noted. Employment figures are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the California Employment Development Department and are not seasonally adjusted. Data for recent months are preliminary and subject to revision. Industry employment figures cover the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara MSA and the San Francisco–San Mateo–Redwood City MD combined, an area comprising Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco and San Benito counties.
About the Author
Danny Wessler is a senior researcher at Joint Venture Silicon Valley. You can learn more about Danny on his bio page.
