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During Silicon Valley'sdramaticeconomic growth fueled by the Internet boom and business investment in information technology， employment in the region's high-tech sector tripledbetween 1995 and 2000. The economic boom gave rise to many new firms， drawing employees into high-tech jobs from other regions and other industries. In addition to longer-term structural changes in high-tech industries，this period of growth witnessed increased shares of both small and new firms in the region's industrial composition. By 2000， the region's unprecedented growth came to an abrupt end， and the Bay Area endured the heaviest employment losses of any urban high-tech center in America. The highly skilled， highly paid tech workforce faced high levels of unemployment， and many left the region entirely.

In 2004， for the first time in four years， Silicon Valley had a net increase in jobs，inone sign that American technology capital may be turning thecorner after a long economic downturn. That is the conclusion of an annual report by Joint Venture Silicon Valley， a nonprofit group representing businesses and government agencies in the San Francisco and San Jose， Calif.， etc. In 2005， the region added 2，000 jobs over the previous year， an overall gain of 0.2 percent. As of June， unemployment had fallen to its lowest level since 2001. Silicon Valley is now emerging as a haven for consumer product design and marketing. Most of the new jobs are high-end positions in the software cluster followed by gains in industrial design， engineering， and marketing research. In total， the number of Silicon Valley jobs in these areas grew 4% from 2002 to 2005， reaching 72，734. At the same time， the number of jobs in electronic-component manufacturing—which tend to involve assembly and other repetitive tasks—dropped 28% to 23，772， while jobs in semiconductor-equipment manufacturing fell 23% to 58，133. Overall， 14% of all the jobs in Silicon Valley today belong to a sector called core design， engineering and science. That exceeds the comparable 9.3% slice of the work force in Austin， Texas; 8.7% in Seattle; and 8.3% in San Diego， according to the study.

The shift highlights how Silicon Valley is working to establish a competitive advantage， as lower-cost geographic rivals chip away at its strongholds. The Silicon Valley region has taken the tack of moving up the skills curve before: As competition in chip making became more heated in the 1970s， Silicon Valley chip makers relocated their assembly and manufacturing overseas but retained their core design facilities in the region. Today these chipmakers， such as Intel Corp.， remain dominant.

Silicon Valley's changing employment makeup does have its downside. Wages are once again creeping up， making it more expensive to do business in the already pricey area. Average annual pay in Silicon Valley hit $69，455 in 2005， up 2.7% from 2004， though it remains below the heights of the average $80，000-plus that the region's workers earned in 2000， according to Joint Venture Silicon Valley.

What's more， as operations and lower-skill tech jobs leave the region， Silicon Valley has a narrower base of industries. That makes the area more vulnerable should another downturn occur. Tech companies say the shift toward the top end of the skills spectrum has largely been positive for them—particularly in productivity. Consider SanDisk， a Sunnyvale， Calif.， supplier of flash memory products. SanDisk had 300 operations and manufacturing jobs in Silicon Valley in 2000. The company moved about half of those jobs to Asia over the past few years， but the headcount at its headquarters jumped to 747 people by the end of 2005. SanDisk's fastest-growing job category has been product development and research， where the company is now hiring at the master's level and Ph.D. level.

Google is doing more specialized hiring in areas such as mechanical and electrical engineering. In 2004， Google brought 2，659 new employees on board， pushing its total work force to 5，680.

Every one in Silicon Valley is now looking forward to a huge turnaround in the region. With all the efforts by the national and local government， all the companies and all the people in Silicon Valley， their dream will come true.