As the self-proclaimed "Capital of Silicon Valley," San Jose's economy rollercoasters with the fates that control technology. When the dot-com bubble burst in the late 1990s, San Jose's economy slowed. In the last few years, however, white-hot development of technology and innovation is again at the boil, and San Jose finds itself at the center of the U.S. technology movement.

More than 7,000 companies in the San Jose MSA are devoted to technology, and provide some 300,000 jobs. The MSA workforce totals some 859,900, with just over 410,000 of those located within the San Jose city limits. The other large economic sectors by job count include manufacturing with some 170,000 employment, professional and business services accounting for 165,900 jobs, trade, transportation and utilities with 130,000 and government with 94,700 employed.

The largest employer in Santa Clara County is the Santa Clara County government with 14,800 jobs, followed by the City of San Jose with 7,200 and the San Jose Unified Public School District with 3,360 positions. Non-government employers include Cisco Systems with 13,400 employees, IBM with 6,400 and Hitachi with 2,900.

San Jose lists more than 25 companies with 1,000 employees or more, including the corporate headquarters for Cisco, Adobe Systems, BEA Systems and eBay, the online auction house. Major facilities of other corporations include IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, Lockheed-Martin and Flextronics.

Entrepreneurial spirit is also a hot commodity in San Jose. One-third of all venture capital investment in the U.S. is made in firms located in San Jose and Santa Clara County, and San Jose leads the nation in generation of U.S. patents. And employee productivity in San Jose is double the national average. Finally, San Jose's Gross Metropolitan Product was more than $92.4 billion in 2002, the latest available figures, ranking the city 24th among all U.S. cities.