San Jose is No. 1 U.S. city for manufacturing jobs – San José Spotlight

In Silicon Valley where innovation, artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship reign, a recent study puts San Jose as a leader in the nation’s manufacturing market.

The study by equipment supplier company ABM ranks San Jose as No. 1 for cities with the highest concentration of manufacturing jobs in its workforce. The study bases its findings on key metrics including total manufacturing employment, annual wages, manufacturing jobs as a percentage of the workforce and employment growth rates. It used U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data to assess a city’s current and future manufacturing growth. The rankings are based on a 100-point scoring system. San Jose scored a perfect 100, followed by Tulsa, Oklahoma  at 93.61, Los Angeles at 93.19, Houston, Texas at 91.7 and Indianapolis, Indiana at 89.1.

San Jose’s score is based on the number of manufacturing jobs, wages and strong manufacturing base. The city has 77,000 manufacturing jobs, accounting for 18% of the overall workforce, according to city data — and pays employees an average of $79,300 a year. In Silicon Valley, the manufacturing industry largely consists of electronics, renewable energy, machining and high-tech advanced manufacturing.

“San Jose is a leader in prototyping and advanced manufacturing, from aviation to semiconductors, thanks to our talented residents, one-fifth of whom have a STEM degree,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan told San José Spotlight. “San Jose is what ‘Made in America’ looks like in the 21st century. Our role and that of other cities that build and make things will only grow as global competition and security considerations drive increased re-shoring and domestic investment.”

Matthew Kenny, program manager for Manufacture: San Jose, said local manufacturing is critical to the city’s economy. It is a testament to the innovation that exists in the Bay Area, as well as how local manufacturing supply chains support those innovations.

“Their ability to rapidly prototype locally is critical, and the industry is very much interconnected from advanced manufacturing, down to mom and pop machine shops,” Kenny told San José Spotlight. “Manufacturing also provides good, well-paying jobs that help support a healthy middle class of society. For local youth that may have barriers to post-secondary education, manufacturing can be a particularly promising path toward career growth and entrepreneurship as well.”

While having more manufacturing jobs is good, Ruth Silver Taube, supervising attorney of Workers’ Rights Clinic and San José Spotlight columnist, said companies need to pay workers fairly and ensure good working conditions. Two former Tesla employees who worked in the Fremont plant filed a class action lawsuit against the electric car juggernaut earlier this year, alleging the company did not pay workers overtime and failed to provide meal breaks.

“It’s good that there’s jobs. We want to see jobs come here, but we want the jobs to be high road jobs where they pay the workers properly,” Silver Taube told San José Spotlight.

Russell Hancock, president and CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, said he is surprised to hear San Jose has the highest concentration of manufacturing jobs.

“The whole thing about Silicon Valley for the past several decades has been to get the manufacturing out of the region,” Hancock told San José Spotlight. “When you’re in mass production, there are cheaper places and cheaper ways to do that. We’ve always prided ourselves on being a place where we do the thinking, the research, the design, but not necessarily the manufacturing.”
There’s been a push at the federal level to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Local Rep. Ro Khanna co-authored the passage of the 2022 CHIPS Act, a $52 billion piece of legislation to fund semiconductor growth nationwide.

San Jose has also worked to highlight the manufacturing industry as a viable career and hosts an annual Manufacturing Week event, bringing youth together to tour manufacturing facilities.

“A lot of people are saying we need to bring manufacturing back,” Hancock said. “In a world that is now highly unpredictable with political tensions and market tensions, you become vulnerable to tariffs, to trade wars, to boycotts. So that’s why it probably makes sense to make sure that there’s capabilities at home. Your portfolio needs to be diverse.”

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X, formerly known as Twitter.