Employment
The agriculture background from which Sunnyvale was known for at the time of its incorporation in 1912 has gone high-tech. The city has a solid presence within the high-tech industry. Transitioning from agricultural to defense to the current high tech economy, Sunnyvale has remained on the cutting edge of Silicon Valley innovation. Despite the effects of the “dot com bust” of 2001, industry in Sunnyvale has remained strong. The top industries in the City include information (25 percent), retail trade (13.5 percent), and construction (18 percent).
There are over 8,000 businesses and a workforce of over 118,000 in Sunnyvale. Some of the nation’s most successful business and industrial leaders are located in Sunnyvale, including AMD, Lockheed Martin, Palm, Inc., Finisar Corporation, Network Appliance, Seagate Technologies, Sun Microsystems, Rapiscan Systems High Energy Inspection Corporation and Yahoo!.