Bay Area Brain Drain

25 March 2006 - 1:00pm

The Bay Area Council has published "The Innovation Economy: Protecting the Talent Advantage" that portrays a stark future for the area, largely resulting from the "unaffordability" (second only to NYC) of the nine-county northern California region.

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"The Bay Area economy has rebounded from the dot-com collapse, but the region's infrastructure problems and rising costs threaten its ability to attract talented workers, according to a profile of the region to be released today."

"'We talk to employers about why they're here and the No. 1 reason is the workforce,' Sean Randolph, chief executive officer of the Bay Area Economic Forum, said. 'We're at risk of losing the talent advantage. The incredibly high cost of living, especially driven by the high cost of housing, is making it harder and harder for people to continue to live and work here, which means it's harder to attract companies than it was.'"

"So-called knowledge-based occupations dominate in the Bay Area, accounting for 64.4 percent of the region's employment, compared with 59 percent nationwide. Knowledge-based occupations are those based on high levels of education and training."

Source: SF Chronicle, March 24, 2006