Tech Sector Growth Takes It Down a Notch

San Francisco, Silicon Valley and New York City have seen a combined 30.7% drop in tech leasing velocity. (Photo: Marlith)

SAN FRANCISCO—Tech-sector employment will continue driving growth in US jobs, and in particular office-using employment, but at a slower pace, even if it’s still more than twice that of the national average. That’s one of the key themes in JLL’s new report on the sector, which also notes new markets opening up for tech employment, although both the jobs and job growth are concentrated in the top 10 hubs.

“With a shift toward an economy centered on consumer based applications, enterprise cloud software and social media platforms, the tech industry has evolved into a services based industry on a large scale, having a greater impact on office demand than ever before,” according to JLL’s Tech Employment Trends report. Since the early-2000s dot-com boom, tech manufacturing has failed to recover 50% of peak-level jobs, while tech services jobs are now 48.8% higher than the 2001 peak. “This shift has allowed the industry to diversify geographically as well, since software development can be done from nearly anywhere with a good internet connection.”