Thread and Ibexx, RE: "Expect weakness in the fiber optic space as JDS Uniphase (JDSU 32 5/8) announced 3,000 layoffs. This announcement is further evidence that capital spending in this sector is slowing"
biz.yahoo.com
I wonder if those were Bay Area jobs.
While Bay Area YOY job increase was 54,000 (number of jobs) in Santa Clara county, another statistic loosely representing emerging technology job growth for Bay Area startups was at YOY -61% (that's negative folks). This later figure indicates a severe cut in emerging technology development. However, it should be noted that this figure is a poor measure because it extracts data from the peak of last year and is not statistically large enough sample pool. I would expect the real figure to be negative, but not this negative.
But this trend (fall off of job growth at startups) has not been discussed by the media, mainly because they tend to focus on the overall employment growth figure, which they are currently celebrating about (because of the 54,000 new jobs YOY). But this sounds a bit like old news to me.
Another indicator of declining potential emerging technology growth is the recent report indicating the first-time contraction of of investments into VC funds by ~30%, although still up several times the 1995 level.
This should not be confused with reports on contractions of VC investments, which has been occurring over a couple of quarters. The former is an indicator of what feeds the VC firm, while the later figure is what feeds startups.
All bad news, however, one good thing is: it's going to shake out the bad companies, big and small, and leave the good, strong and resilient companies standing, which is a good thing.
Regards,
Amy J |
