San Jose-metro finance jobs, September 2026
San Jose-metro financial activities employers had 35,700 people on payroll in September 2026, down 1.9% from a year earlier. That is 3.0% of all payroll jobs in the metro, against 3.1% a year before.
Finance and insurance plus real estate, rental and leasing — banks, insurers, mortgage lenders, brokers and property managers. Real estate and lending also make it sensitive to interest rates in a way most sectors are not.
The two charts answer different questions. The count peaked at 39,400 in February 2020 and says whether the sector is hiring. The share — from 4.0% in January 1990, with a high of 4.1% in November 1992 and a low of 3.0% in September 2026 — says whether it is growing faster or slower than the rest of the economy.
Not seasonally adjusted, so compare a month with the same month a year earlier. The share is computed at read time from two series in the same BLS release, so it stays consistent when the levels are revised.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State & Area Employment, financial activities and total nonfarm payrolls, San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara MSA, not seasonally adjusted, via FRED (SANJ906FIREN, SANJ906NAN). The share is derived at read time. Auto-generated each build.