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How many software engineers are currently employed in the Silicon Valley Bay area?
OVERVIEW
Hi there! Thank you for asking us how many software engineers are currently employed in the Silicon Valley Bay area. The short answer is after reviewing the data we were unable to find information on how many 'software engineers' are employed but were able to find information on 'software developers'. The data revealed that there were 41,490 software developers, applications employed and 28,670 software developers, systems software, as at May 2016.
Below is a deep dive of my methodology and findings.
METHODOLOGY
We searched industry reports, government reports/databases, corporate websites, trusted media sites, user forums and review sites to gather insights into the Silicon Valley and Bay area in order to have a better understanding of the exact location we are researching. We then searched to see if software engineer and software developer are the same. Although, generally used interchangeably, the latter seems to be more frequently used. After an extensive search of the data, we were unable to find information on how many 'software engineers' are employed. However, we were able to find information on 'software developers' in both application and systems software. Our findings are recorded below.
FINDINGS
According to Dictionary.com, Silicon Valley "is the area in northern California, southwest of San Francisco in the Santa Clara valley region, where many of the high-technology design and manufacturing companies in the semiconductor industry are concentrated." Urban Dictionary says that Bay Area "most commonly refers to the area around the bay located in the northern region of California. The peninsula part is based around San Francisco."
SOFTWARE ENGINEER VERSUS SOFTWARE DEVELOPER
To the 'untrained' eye, there is no difference between software engineering and software development. However, research shows "the difference between software engineering and software development begins with job function." It is reported that "a software engineer may be involved with software development, but few software developers are engineers."
According to Computer Science Degree Hub, software engineering refers to the "application of engineering principles to create software." Software engineers use engineering concepts to develop software. On the other hand, software developers are "the driving creative force behind programs." The entire development process is the responsibility of software developers.
EMPLOYMENT OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS IN APPLICATIONS AND SYSTEMS SOFTWARE
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that as of May 2016, in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA region, there were 41,490 software developers, applications employed with an hourly mean wage of $63.95 and an annual mean wage of $133,010. The BLS also shows that for the same period there were 28,670 software developers, systems software employed with an hourly mean wage of $70.50 and an annual mean wage of $146,630.
INTERESTING CONTEXTUAL DATA
To get some insight into which companies in Silicon Valley are seeking to find top software engineers, we came across a report from Indeed published in the August 2017 edition of Forbes. This report revealed the 10 companies that are hiring the most software engineers in Silicon. They are: Oracle, Apple, SonSoft Inc., SAP, IBM, Google, Intel, Facebook, Yahoo and Amazon. However, the article did not say how many engineers are employed.
"For decades, Silicon Valley has been the epicenter of the tech industry" according to Hired, but the "Bay Areas's reign" is reportedly being challenged by the increase of new technology and innovation hubs across the United States and the world.
Additionally, in June 2017, the LinkedIn Workforce Report, a monthly report on employment trends in the US workforce stated, "fewer workers are moving to the San Francisco Bay Area." It says, the Bay Area is a "talent magnet", but while it still gains more workers than it loses, "the net number of workers moving to the region has decreased 17% since February 2017."
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, after reviewing the data we were unable to find information on how many 'software engineers' are employed but were able to find information on 'software developers'. The data revealed that there were 41,490 software developers, applications employed and 28,670 software developers, systems software as at May 2016.
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