Acknowledging what many in the capital of high-tech have long known through personal experience, the State of California today revised its estimates of non-agricultural job loss in the Silicon Valley region since 2000. Estimates in Santa Clara County alone were raised from 115,000 to 175,000 jobs lost since 2000---a number representing a sixteen percent total loss in non-agricultural jobs, and the worst regional employment loss anywhere in California since the Great Depression. With the number of people working in Silicon Valley currently at pre-dot-com levels and tens of thousands leaving the area or the tech industry, some economists are worried that even if the high-tech industry begins to expand again, the region's economy may take a decade or longer to rebuild.
See "Data Reveals Severity of Tech's Pain", JOSEPH MENN, Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2003