Global Talent
San Francisco is one of the world's most desirable cities in the world with an unparalleled quality of life. As a result, it attracts the world's top most talented workforce.
Highly educated: San Francisco sits on a veritable goldmine of talent: it was recently ranked "The Best Educated City in the Nation" by Money magazine, and enjoys one of the most culturally diverse, well-educated and highly productive workforces in the world, including a high percentage of bilingual Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) - English speakers.
Highly Productive: The San Francisco Bay Area boasts a productivity rate that's twice the national average, and its residents can collectively claim more patents than any other region in the country. In fact, during the years 1995-1999, more patents were awarded to residents of the San Francisco Bay area than to the entire United States combined. Nowhere in the U.S. will Chinese companies find so many highly-qualified and bi-lingual professionals as in San Francisco, and nowhere will Chinese businesspeople, whether visiting or relocating, feel as friendly and welcoming an atmosphere.
Highly Innovative: San Francisco was ranked # 1 in Entrepreneurial Climate, with most new companies achieving an annual revenue growth of more than 20% for four consecutive years. On a per capita basis, more patents were awarded to residents of the San Francisco Bay Area in the years 1995-1999 than were awarded in the entire United States. Serving this culture of innovation is the highest density of venture capital firms in the world: more than 33% of nationwide funding occurs in the Bay Area alone.
Top Managerial Talent: San Francisco's workforce is well-suited to address the managerial needs of firms locating in North America. The scarcity of top managerial and technical talent has been cited time and again as a critical problem facing both foreign and locally owned businesses in China. A recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, for example, found that 37% of the American enterprises in the city said that recruiting talent was their biggest barrier to success, ahead of regulatory concerns or bureaucracy. China will need to forge ahead to satisfy demand for talented professionals from across a range of fields in order to their global ambitions, and San Francisco is ideally poised to supply this growing demand.