The Traffic Is Back In Silicon Valley... Is The Economy Back Too?
from the leading-indicators dept
Okay, forget all those economic numbers and forecasts and technical analysis crap. That all means nothing in predicting how the economy is going. Instead, just check out how crowded highway 101 is heading through Silicon Valley at rush hour. At least, that's the idea behind this article that brings up some anecdotal reports that traffic is getting worse - which many people are interpreting to mean that the jobs are coming back, too. They say the traffic feels just like it did when the dot coms started catching on. While there may be something to that (and I've heard others say the same thing), it certainly feels like people are just looking for any sign that things are picking up, and will latch onto anything. It's not quite trying to divining the future from animal entrails, but I wouldn't use it as the most definitive measure of economic life in the Valley.
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The Tracy crowd
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what do have against haruspices?
Why are you mocking my job? It's a perfectly respectable profession.
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San Jose unemployment rates
Among urban areas with a million or more people, San Jose and Portland, Ore., have the nation's highest unemployment rates
And another one from last week http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2003/09/29/daily33.html
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The Newest Breed of White Trash
Whatever happened to the homeless ex-software-engineer that made the headlines?
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Traffic
msykes
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unemployment == more traffic in the short run
With large populations of unemployed people, you'll see consistant heavy traffic as they all run around trying to fit as many possible interviews into their day.
This will keep up through the first 8 to 10 months of the "jobless recovery". Once people realize the jobs aren't there for them any longer. They'll get on with their lives and find something else to do that doesn't require running around spending at least $10 to $20 a day to simply interview for non-existant position.
The transition point will be marked by more people taking public transit and, finally, by more homeless people.
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