Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA MSA · September 2026
Every advertised-pay, job-posting and industry figure in this briefing comes from WageScape's own database of active job postings. The sources below back the external facts cited in the written analysis.
Sources cited in this report
Key Indicators
San Jose MSA unemployment rate was 4.3% in August 2026, down from 4.7% a year ago, vs. CA at 5.4%
California Employment Development Department (EDD) — San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA Labor Force Data, August 2026
South Bay combined employment increased by 20,400 jobs (1.7%) from August 2025 to August 2026
California Employment Development Department (EDD) — San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA Labor Force Data, August 2026
Silicon Valley tech companies cut 7,295 jobs in the first half of 2026, 9% short of full-year 2025 total
Joint Venture Silicon Valley / San José Spotlight — Analysis of WARN filings by Joint Venture senior researcher Danny Wessler
Bay Area (San Francisco area) headline CPI was 3.4% in August 2026
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics / USAFacts — CPI-U San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward area, August 2026
This Month's Takeaways
Four City of San Jose bargaining units voted to authorize a strike in August; factfinding scheduled September 10-11
City of San José — City of San José 2026 Labor Negotiations Flash Reports #1 and #2
Local Economic Conditions
Healthcare and social assistance has added more jobs than any other Silicon Valley sector since the pandemic, up 22.6%
Joint Venture Silicon Valley — Joint Venture Silicon Valley June 2026 employment analysis
How the numbers are calculated
- Advertised pay is the median of the pay ranges employers publish in active job postings in this metro. It is not survey or payroll data.
- Percent changes compare the latest six full months with the six months before that, for the same metro and sector.
- Sectors group postings by the employer's industry (NAICS) classification into ten sectors. Where a metro has too few postings in a sector, the state figure is used instead.
- Role pay trends use the same comparison windows. "Stable" means a change of less than 3%; "moderate" 3–10%; "significant" more than 10%.
Official data for comparison