S.F. Economy Showing Pluses, Minuses

So how is the San Francisco economy shaping up? It seems so fragile and uneven — mirroring the economy nationwide. The San Francisco business times reports, it’s a “mixed bag.”

Ted Egan, San Franciscos chief economist, gave a presentation Tuesday at a San Francisco Chamber event and summed up how the city and nation are doing.

Here are the highlights:

On the troubling side, Egan said, A worrying sign continues to be housing. I cant say where were at in terms of the housing market right now. So its not at all clear when home prices will finally start a steady increase, which would bolster consumer confidence.

On national employment, Egan said, Were not seeing sustainable job growth. Indeed employment has been flat for three months now after rebounding late last year.

Still, Egan found reason for optimism for San Francisco.

Despite the citys 9.7 percent unemployment rate, it is in better shape than every other major city in the state. Oakland has a 17.7 percent unemployment rate and San Jose has 12.6 percent unemployment.

San Francisco has been resilient, Egan said, because of several different areas of job growth despite the downturn.

Consider: Between the second quarter of 2008 and the fourth quarter of 2009, the following job categories have grown more than 20 percent: software, internet publishing, intellectual property transactions, directory publishers, translation services and performing arts promotion and management.

Meanwhile, venture capital investments, the fuel behind most San Francisco startups, has returned to pre-recession levels of almost $3 billion spent in the second quarter, Egan said.

Its only a matter of time before these economic engines restore the overall regional economy to health, according to Egan.

The question no one can answer yet, however, is how long that will take.

 [San Francisco Business Times]