Silicon Valley faces recession
Worst downturn seen since early 1990s
By William L. Watts, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 2:11 PM ET May 19, 2001
SAN JOSE, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- Silicon Valley is facing its sharpest recession since the beginning of the 1990s and could see the economy remain under pressure the rest of the year, a newspaper said Saturday.
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High-tech-heavy Santa Clara County appears to be particularly hard hit, The San Jose Mercury News said, citing economists who track the national slowdown's impact on high-tech industries.
"Whether we have a national recession or not, we have one in Silicon Valley, said Ken Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate at UC Berkeley, predicting the downturn could last from six months to two years.
A regional estimate by Economy.com predicted Santa Clara County would see production of goods and services contract by 1.6 percent in the second quarter of this year, equal to a $2 billion decline in output, measured in 1996 dollars, the newspaper said.
Employment, meanwhile, is also hurting. Economy.com estimates around 13,000 industrial jobs, or 1 percent of the county's total, will disappear, the report said. That still wouldn't surpass the 1990-91 recession, however, which saw the county lose 24,000 jobs during a two-year downturn that wasn't followed by a meaningful recovery until 1995.
William L. Watts is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com. |
