Reinventing Manufacturing

California’s Shifting Landscape: Manufacturing and the Innovation Ecosystem
Regional Manufacturing Strengths
Manufacturing is distributed across the state, with
distinctive regional clustering. Although manufacturing
clusters are concentrated in urban centers, especially in
Southern California, there are also pockets of producers
in the state’s rural areas. The eight regions defined
in this analysis demonstrate distinct manufacturing
strengths and trends, and each has evolved in a
different way since 1990.
The Los Angeles Area is California’s largest manufacturing
hub. With 478,919 manufacturing jobs,
the region accounted for 38.5 percent of the state’s
manufacturing employment and 8.4 percent of the
Los Angeles Area’s total employment in 2014.
The Bay Area is a leading global hub of technology
innovation. Although it is one of the most expensive
regions of the state, many manufacturers locate
there because they work closely with the region’s
technology companies. The Bay Area’s 293,847
manufacturing jobs made up 23.6 percent of
manufacturing employment in California and
8.4 percent of Bay Area employment in 2014.
Orange County is the third largest manufacturing
region in California, with 141,810 manufacturing
jobs in 2014. It also has the highest concentration
of manufacturing employment in the state, with
manufacturing jobs accounting for 10 percent of
the region’s employment.
California’s Central Valley is the heartland of the state’s
food production activity. Clustered around the cities of
Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, and Stockton, its manufacturing
sector accounted for 98,038 jobs in 2014
and 6.9 percent of total employment in the region.
Manufacturing accounted for 6.2 percent of total
employment in the San Diego Area in 2014. Of the
84,615 manufacturing jobs in the region, a large
portion are defense related.
Manufacturing accounted for 23,460 Central Coast
jobs in 2014 and 4.1 percent of total employment in
the region.
The 21,145 manufacturing jobs in the Sacramento
Area accounted for only 2.4 percent of jobs in the region
in 2014—the lowest regional share in the state.
In 2014, manufacturing accounted for 13,491 jobs in
the Northern California region, or 4.0 percent of the
region’s employment.
For each of the eight regions, the California Manufacturing
Regional Clusters analysis in Part Two provides
1990–2014 data on employment and establishments in
18 manufacturing sectors.
Manufacturing Employment and Establishments in
California by Region, 2014
Employment Establishments
%
Change
2010–
2014
%
Change
2010–
2014
Los Angeles Area 478,919 0.7% 16,660 -5.7%
Bay Area 293,847 4.8% 8,257 -0.6%
Orange County 141,810 5.2% 4,857 -2.8%
Central Valley 97,037 10.9% 2,743 0.3%
San Diego Area 84,615 2.6% 3,096 1.6%
Central Coast 23,460 19.0% 1,538 7.7%
Sacramento Area 21,145 12.0% 1,386 -3.9%
Northern California 13,491 16.2% 976 -1.9%
CALIFORNIA TOTAL* 1,243,329 3.1% 39,389 2.8%
*Totals differ from the sum of the columns due to regional suppression.
Data Source: Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages, California EDD
Analysis: Bay Area Council Economic Institute
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