Top 10 High Demand Jobs for Atherton, California - GOOGLE and Other Jobs Increasing

Atherton is in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont Metro Area, as defined by the US government. The town lies between San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean, on the San Francisco Peninsula. This sounds as though it is not too far distant from the HubPages Headquarters, and it turns out to be approximately 30 miles south of the home office, along Highway 101.

After the American Civil War, the town that is Atherton was called Fair Oaks in honor of the oak trees on site and their descendants preserved today in Silicon Valley. Fair Oaks was a train stop at which the wealthy built large estates for summer living, renamed Atherton later, in honor of a local landowner. Others of the Atherton wrote several novels and historical documents about this area of California (see links at the end of this Hub).

High Speed Rail: Peninsula Cities Consortium -- Peninsula Rail. This is the Internet page for Peninsula Cities Consortium, which connects residents the San Francisco Peninsula to news of the California High Speed Rail Program and its developments.

Google Maps indicagte that the Menlo Park Caltrain is 6 minutes by car or taxi from Atherton. The train makes 13 stops and spends about an hour to arrive in San Francisco, where a wide ranging bus system is available (http://www.sfmta.com/).

The Town of Atherton was named the Second Wealthiest town in the USA by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, based on 2008 statistics for the average income and net worth of its residents at the end of that year.

Looking at home values in and around Atherton, these seem high, but then the salaries in the San Francisco Bay area and the cost of living are also generally higher than the national average. Four friends of mine - teachers and business people - moved together to the SF area in 2000 and were happy with higher wages than in Ohio, but moderately concerned about cost of living. One of their employer's owned a house with a bus stop at the front door, and rented to the four of them at $500/month each; and they've been happy for a decade with a few moderate rent rises.

I looked at values of the homes listed for sale in Atherton in March 2001 and the range ran from high of $17,800,000 (6 bedrooms, 9 full baths 2 half baths) to a low of $1,088,000. What was the average income and net worth at the end of 3rd QTR 2008? -- BusinessWeek's stats from the Gadberry Group (http://www.gadberry.net/) found

• Aaverage single net income in 2008 at $380,535
• Average single net worth in 2008 at $1,648,161

Means and ranges are not quoted 2008, but would help us to better understand the economic picture of this town.

SimplyHired.com reports the 2010 average offered salary for Atherton jobs was $84,196, with 52% of the population earning over $200K annually. US Census2010 median household income was $200,000, and average household income was $239, 205. This seems much lower than in 2008 when the average per person was higher.

The estimate from the US Census community surveys 2005 - 2009 (factfinder.census) indicate that the median value of California owner-occupied homes was $479,200, while the estimate for the USA overall was $185,400. This makes Atherton look like an expensive place to live. US Census2010 reports the population as 7,535 and median home cast $2,621,420, at a drop of almost 15% from 2009; still an expensive place to live and perhaps more so than in 2008 and 2009.

While BusinessWeek reports this average income to be the highest in the country, Forbes.com reports Westlake, Texas residents with higher income, January 2011 (see link).

Over 157,000 job listings for Atherton area in March 2011, many as high paying IT positions. In fact, the Top 10 most frequently listed job vacancies are all in Information Technology (IT). Some Healthcare Industry jobs begin to appear among the second 10 most-listed positions, but Sales and Service dominate these numbers.

These most of advertised jobs are within a 25-mile radius of Atherton, largely in SF, San Jose, Santa Clara, Redwood City, Mountain View (home of GOOGLE). Sunnyvale, Oakland, and Palo Alto, with few thousand jobs each in other nearby locations. Approximately 18,000 jobs offered pay over $120,000 annually.

1. Software Developers, levels 2, 3, 4, and 5
2. Software Engineers
3. Product Managers - IT
4. Senior Software Engineers
5. Applications Developers, levels 3 and 4
6. Project Managers - IT
7. Technical Analysts, level 4
8. Internet Sales Representatives
9. Account Executives - IT
10. Business Analysts - IT related businesses

Additional High Demand Jobs

1. Shift Supervisors and Baristas
2. Store Managers
3. Administrative Assistants
4. Physical Therapists
5. IT Products Marketing Jobs

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Other companies listing substantial number of open job listings include VMWare, Facebook, Informatica, Tesla Motors, Electronic Arts, Genomic Health, Cross Creek Systems, Tyco Electronics, Electronic Arts, and Ernst & Young.

1. Software Development Directors
2. Product Mgmt/Strategy Directors and Senior Directors in Product Development and IT
3. Anti-Fraud and Anti-Theft Protection
4. Mortgage Loan Officers
5. Corporate Associates - Attorneys
6. WebKit Browser Framework Developers
7. Technical Leads, Distributed Platform - BitTorrent, GoogleTV, other
8. Technology Sales Representatives, level IV
9. Consulting Solution Directors
10. Mobile Software Developers - Titanium, JavaScript
11. Corporate Counsel - Attorneys