Solar panels on top of the Moscone Center. (Photo Credit: Amy Gahran/Flickr)
If you live and work in the Bay Area, here’s some good news: the jobs and economic outlook for the next two years is looking bright. In fact, it’s great. So say the economists at the Bay Area Council who recently released their annual economic forecast.
If you’re one of the many who remain unemployed, look no further than the Bay Area as the job market is expected to expand faster than California and the nation, thanks in part to job growth in San Jose and San Francisco.
According to the report, in 2013 and 2014, job totals should expand by 7.2 percent—an average of 3.5 percent each of the two years.
Sectors that will drive the recovery:
- Technology
- Professional and business services will grow most quickly by 15.5 percent in two years
- Education and health care will grow by 10 percent
- Leisure and hospitality will expand by 9 percent
- Durable goods manufacturing by 8.5 percent
Another industry that the San Francisco mayor hopes will create more jobs and boost the economy is cleantech jobs.
Mayor Ed Lee just launched CleantechSF, a new initiative. “As part of my 17-point Jobs Plan, CleantechSF is designed to drive job creation in the cleantech and green sectors,” said the mayor.
The new initiative is a partnership between several city departments as well as the California Clean Energy Fund.
“This innovative partnership brings together the California Clean Energy Fund and key City departments, with the singular goal of keeping San Francisco the leading center for cleantech,” said the mayor.
“This initiative is another example of how CalCEF’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) program creates implementable solutions that address critical issues in the clean energy market,” said CalCEF Managing Director Paul Frankel. “As a result, we believe that CleantechSF will help create replicable models to accelerate innovation, the adoption of new technologies and business growth.”
In the first phase, CleantechSF will focus on three key program areas:
- Establish living innovation zones: CalCEF will work with the city to create an institutionalized and streamlined citywide process to use city properties, buildings and other public assets to pilot and evaluate innovative new products and design concepts.
- Support new company growth and jobs: Developing a support network of members and services for S.F. cleantech startups; recruit cleantech incubators and cowork spaces to the city; and connect companies to the workforce system.
- Attract cleantech anchoring institutions: Work to attract cleantech industry anchors including science and engineering universities, national laboratories, research centers and other major firms.
There are more than 208 cleantech companies in San Francisco—one of the largest and most concentrated cleantech clusters in the world. In 2012, the city was named Cleantech Capital of North America by the Cleantech Group.
