Silicon Valley unemployment rate ticked higher in January, bucking long downtrend

Silicon Valley’s unemployment rate increased to 3.2 percent in January due in part to a drop in seasonal employment and a significant spike in COVID-19 cases that occurred before the holidays.

Employers in Silicon Valley cut nearly 13,400 workers between mid-December and mid-January, according to Robin Doran, a spokesperson for Joint Venture Silicon Valley. That decline represents more than half of the job gains experienced between mid-October and mid-December of last year.