Tech layoffs have doubled in the Bay Area, but the real number could be much higher

REUTERS/Joshua Lott

Tech layoffs have doubled in the Bay Area last year, according to a new report from the San Jose Mercury News.

And those are just the ones that can be counted.

By analyzing WARN Act filings, the four-county area of Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda, and San Francisco had a total of 3,135 tech jobs lost in the first quarter of 2016, the Mercury News calculated. That's up from 1,330 in the first quarter of 2015.

Among the tech companies to lose employees are SurveyMonkey (57), TiVo (52), Zenefits (83), Yahoo (279), TangoMe (53), Autodesk (71), and GoPro (77).

California requires companies with more than 75 employees to file a 60-day notice ahead of layoffs of more than 50 people under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Many of the smaller startups in the Bay Area don't fall under that category. That means the real number could be much higher when you add up the companies that have done some downsizing or simply lost employees through attrition.

But before you think this will curb the rent you're paying, the increase in layoffs won't mean that the Bay Area's sky-high rents will come crashing down, too.

In a note to clients in October, Morgan Stanley analyst Vance Edelson said "it will take more than a mild slowdown in tech activity to break down favorable supply demand fundamentals in the Bay Area."

And the kicker: "We think supply/demand would remain favorable even if current Bay Area job growth forecasts were cut in half."

So while layoffs may have doubled in the last quarter, the Mercury News notes that 102,600 workers still joined the Bay Area tech scene between March 2015 and March 2016 — and those housing prices won't fall dramatically anytime soon.

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