Salaries for technology workers in Silicon Valley showed strong gains during the recovery year of 2009, numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show.
The mean salary for computer science workers in the San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara metropolitan statistical area rose 6.5% last year to $109,130, from $102,480 in 2008, according to BLS data.
That category of workers includes computer programmers, software application engineers, systems engineers, systems analysts, database administrators, network and systems admins, data analysts and research scientists.
The largest year-over-year percentage gain was captured by engineers who develop operating systems, who saw their mean annual salary rise 7.5%, to $124,360 from $115,730.
Mean average salaries for software application engineers rose 6.3% to $115,030, from $108,170.
That's strong salary growth at a time when earnings for some technology jobs, including software publishing, have been less robust across the U.S. as a whole.
The job market in "Silicon Valley is exploding right now," said Jeff Markowitz, a software executive recruiter in the Menlo Park, Calif. office of Hiedrick & Struggles.
The most surprising aspect of the gain in Silicon Valley tech worker salaries is that it happened in 2009, a year when unemployment in the San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara area averaged 10.5% as a whole.
"There's pretty stiff competition for the best candidates," said Markowitz, who's been a recruiter for 12 years.
The one job category that failed to deliver robust salary growth was that of network and systems administrators, who saw mean annual earnings rise 0.9%, to $98,570, from $97,670.
Data analysts saw mean wages rise 6 percent in 2009 to $104,860; database admins, 5%, to $98,570; and systems analysts, 4.8%, to $92,830.
Write to John Shinal
