The San Francisco Bay Area, a region that encompasses booming Silicon Valley, led California in job growth last year as the technology industry workforce rose.
The area, home to Internet giants including Facebook Inc. (FB) and Google Inc. (GOOG), gained 91,400 jobs in 2012, up 2.9 percent from a year earlier, or more than twice the nationwide increase of 1.4 percent, said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto.
“Silicon Valley companies are once again leading the nation,” San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said in a statement. He said the region was leading the state in its recovery from the longest recession since the 1930s, which ended in 2009.