(BCN) — A latest report exhibits Silicon Valley’s financial development faltered within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, although native consultants say enterprise has been recovering.
The Milken Institute, a worldwide suppose tank, has ranked the San Jose metropolitan space 108th out of 200 massive metro areas nationally in its 2025 Finest Performing Cities report. The rating is predicated on the area’s tech sector development, labor market and entry to financial alternatives. Silicon Valley plummeted 64 factors from forty fourth in 2024. Ten years in the past it was ranked No.1. The San Jose metropolitan space contains Santa Clara and San Benito counties.
Specialists watching the native financial system stated the drop in rating comes from quite a lot of components, however doesn’t translate to a drop within the area’s development.
Joint Enterprise Silicon Valley CEO Russell Hancock stated it is precisely the alternative. Different metropolitan areas try to catch as much as the expansion Silicon Valley skilled over the previous decade.
“In reality, what you want is for every metro on that chart to be growing, every single one,” Hancock instructed San Jose Highlight. “That is good news for America and it is not bad news for San Jose. It means we’re finally getting out of this syndrome, where a couple of places were prosperous and all of the rest were in decline.”
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He stated development in different metro areas seemingly comes from corporations primarily based in Silicon Valley, as corporations started hiring distant employees who dwell elsewhere. Distributing operations like that helps develop the whole sector and, given the Milken Institute’s methodology, it is seemingly measured as development in different cities.
Together with San Jose’s steep decline, San Francisco dropped 102 rankings — from twenty seventh in 2024 to 126th this 12 months.
The Milken Institute weighs 13 components whereas rating cities, together with high quality of life metrics akin to housing affordability and wage development.
The 2025 report used 2023 metrics to find out its rankings. Ahmad Thomas, CEO of the Silicon Valley Management Group, stated that exhibits the area’s standings at a particular cut-off date and would not seize the place the financial system is now. The rating breaks the Bay Space aside into a number of metropolitan areas, however Thomas stated the area’s interconnectedness means synthetic intelligence firm development in San Francisco has advantages in San Jose and elsewhere within the area.
Nonetheless, the report exhibits speedy development in different areas nationwide, which Thomas stated makes the business extra aggressive.
“It is a race domestically that when we look at other regions across the country, these regions are working very hard to replicate our innovation ecosystem,” Thomas instructed San Jose Highlight. “It’s imperative that we continue to build on our strengths and that we do so with policies that are as innovative as the companies that call this region home.”
Nanci Klein, director of financial growth for San Jose, stated the town itself has been rising, highlighting the rising employment fee and new knowledge from safety agency Kastle that exhibits San Jose’s return to workplace fee has elevated to just about 63%.
A number of components of San Jose’s financial system separate from the tech sector have been on the rise, Klein stated, highlighting the town’s leisure financial system and small enterprise group. Different massive occasions coming to the area, akin to Tremendous Bowl 60 and the FIFA World Cup in 2026, will proceed bolstering the native financial system.
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“Our economy in San Jose is continuing to grow,” Klein instructed San Jose Highlight. “We want to study more what Milken is speaking to. One of the things they note is cost of living, and it really hasn’t changed (with) cost of living (still) a challenge for us.”
Whereas Silicon Valley’s tech sector stays extremely aggressive, different high quality of life components introduced the rating down. The San Jose metropolitan space has the very best focus of tech business, however ranks 192nd in job development and 191st in wage development, respectively. Different reviews have discovered whereas Santa Clara County’s median revenue has gone up almost 75% up to now 10 years, the value of a two-bedroom condo has risen about 90% throughout the identical interval.
Hancock stated that discrepancy got here from the area’s steep wealth hole, the place Silicon Valley has a number of the nation’s highest earners and extreme poverty ranges.
“There’s no illusions here that we would ever come out on top on affordable housing, on the quantity of it or the sheer cost,” Hancock instructed San Jose Highlight.
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