Reinventing Manufacturing

California Manufacturing Regional Clusters Analysis
Central Coast
The Central Coast region consists of Monterey,
San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and
Santa Cruz Counties. Manufacturing in the region is
largely tied to agriculture, but with more specialized
products than manufacturing in the Central Valley.
High-value products, such as lettuce, artichokes, and
asparagus, are grown and processed in the region,
and the Central Coast is also home to manufacturers
specializing in agricultural field equipment and
packaging. In 2014, the Central Coast’s manufacturing
sectors provided 23,460 jobs, and manufacturing
accounted for 4.1 percent of jobs in the region.
In addition to agriculture-related companies, the Central
Coast has many manufacturers that are small in size but
produce niche products at a high margin. In the Santa
Cruz area, specialty makers of electric-powered motorcycles,
surfboards, and skateboards are world leaders
in their respective fields. In the Monterey area, marinerelated
manufacturing supports marine research that
is conducted in Monterey Bay. Further south, San Luis
Obispo County is well known for its wine and beverage
industries, while Santa Barbara County has a growing
Computer & Electronic Product Manufacturing sector,
which is closely linked to technology commercialization
programs at UC Santa Barbara.
noticeably higher than their employment numbers for
1990 (170 and 504, respectively). Robust job growth
between 2010 and 2014 also occurred in Medical
Equipment & Supplies Manufacturing (+182.3 percent),
Apparel, Textile, & Leather Manufacturing (+137.0
percent), and Transportation Equipment Manufacturing
(+118.4 percent). In those three sectors, however, the
jobs gained represent a start at recovery from job losses
over the long term (1990–2014) rather than net gains.
For the three Central Coast manufacturing sectors
with the largest number of jobs overall, the growth
experience was mixed. Computer & Electronic Product
Manufacturing contracted by 28.4 percent over the
long-term period from 1990 to 2014, and its 5.3 percent
job growth between 2010 and 2014 did not allow it to
fully bounce back. In contrast, the Beverage Manufacturing
sector did not experience contraction during the
long-term period, and in the 2010–2014 time period
it expanded by 26.5 percent, adding over 900 jobs.
Although maintaining its status as the third largest Central
Coast manufacturing sector, measured by employment,
the Food Manufacturing sector experienced only
employment contraction, both in the long-term period
(-63.4 percent) and in the recent time period since 2010
(-11.0 percent).
Measured by employment, the three largest manufacturing
sectors in the Central Coast region are Computer
& Electronic Product Manufacturing, Beverage Manufacturing,
and Food Manufacturing. Together these
three sectors account for 56.5 percent of manufacturing
employment in the region.
In the 2010–2014 time period, strong employment
growth occurred across a range of manufacturing sectors
in the Central Coast region. The fastest growing
sectors were Chemical Manufacturing (excluding Pharmaceutical
& Medicine Manufacturing), which increased
by 331.8 percent (to a 2014 total of 747 jobs), and
Wood & Paper Products Manufacturing, which grew by
215.8 percent (to a 2014 total of 818 jobs). While both
of these sectors experienced job losses in a few of the
years between 1990 and 2014, their overall growth
experiences both resulted in 2014 total job numbers
81