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Oct 14, 2026
Eight years of economic progress have strengthened California’s global standing and laid the foundation for its next chapter
What you need to know: Under Governor Gavin Newsom’s leadership, California has added more than $1.5 trillion to its economy, strengthened worker protections, expanded opportunities for families, and invested in the industries and innovations that will define the next generation of economic growth.
LONG BEACH — At today’s 2026 California Economic Summit in Long Beach, Governor Gavin Newsom highlighted how the Golden State continues to dominate nearly every major sector, becoming a $4.5 trillion economy while delivering more jobs, higher wages, stronger worker protections, and more opportunity for Californians to build a good life. Under Governor Newsom’s leadership, California’s world-leading economy delivers for the people who power it.
California has created the formula for success, with more jobs and more businesses, leading in every sector across the board. Our success is about building tomorrow’s innovation and new ideas, through investment in talent and research today. California will continue to shape the future and lead the nation by growing our economy and a stronger future for all..
Governor Gavin Newsom
Since Governor Newsom took office, California’s economy has grown by more than $1.58 trillion. The Golden State represents only 11.5% of the U.S. population but accounts for nearly 14% of U.S. GDP — 47% larger than Texas. California continues to lead the nation economically, outpacing all states and every developed nation, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
💵Under Governor Newsom, the Golden State leads the nation in 17 of 20 major economic sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and health care. California’s manufacturing sector alone generated $391 billion in economic output in 2025 — 18% more than Texas.
⬆️According to federal data, California outpaced the next three largest state economies in 2025, growing 3.5% after inflation, compared with 2.8% in Texas and Florida and 2.5% in New York.
🏢California is home to more than 4.3 million small businesses, representing 99.8% of all businesses in the state and employing 7.6 million people.
💪 California is creating more jobs. Nearly one in four American jobs added over the past year were in California. The state added 138,500 of the nation’s 603,000 net payroll jobs from August 2025 through August 2026 — approximately 23%. California accounted for 17.8% of America’s job growth in 2026 through August, adding 114,700 jobs during the first eight months of the year.
California’s economic strength puts more money in workers’ paychecks while the state works to lower everyday costs for families. Since Governor Newsom took office, working people have received expanded paid sick leave to at least five days for most workers and increased paid family leave and disability benefits to replace up to 90% of wages for lower-paid workers. Under Governor Newsom’s leadership, Californians experience a stronger quality of life and more money in their pockets:
✅California workers earn more. Average weekly wages in the Golden State reached $1,986 in the first quarter of 2026 — about 20% above the national average. Total wages and salaries grew 5.2% over the past year, putting more of the state’s economic growth into Californians’ pockets.
✅Raising the floor. California’s statewide minimum wage has risen from $12 an hour when Governor Newsom took office to $17.40 next year — more than two times the federal minimum wage. By keeping up with inflation, there is more money in workers’ paychecks to help cover everyday costs and build a more secure life for their families.
✅California’s workers are helping drive the nation’s economic progress. In 2025, productivity in California’s private nonfarm economy rose 4.2% — more than twice the national rate. California accounted for nearly one-third of the nation’s productivity growth—more than any other state.
✅Building skills and expanding career opportunities. The Governor has also expanded apprenticeships and workforce training to help Californians build skills and move into good-paying careers. Since Governor Newsom took office, California has supported 694,528 earn-and-learn opportunities statewide, including 266,756 registered apprenticeships. During the Newsom administration, 1 in 30 Californians in the workforce have completed an earn-and-learn apprenticeship in industries such as health care, technology, and manufacturing.
California’s world-leading innovation ecosystem has been a major driver of the state’s economic success. Governor Newsom’s final bill of his tenure as Governor seeks to drive the next wave of Golden State innovation by putting a $7.5 billion research bond before voters to invest in the science, technology, universities and breakthroughs that will shape California’s future and advance California’s status as the capital of innovation, research and technology.
As of August, California companies attracted $366 billion in venture capital in 2026—more than three times the total raised in all 49 other states combined.
California businesses performed more than one-third of all U.S. business R&D in 2023 — more than the next five states combined.
California residents received more than 50,000 U.S. patents in fiscal year 2025—more than any other state and more than four times as many as second-place Texas.
The University of California system received more U.S. patents than any other university worldwide in 2025, with 571 patents granted.
California is home to more Nobel laureates than any other state or any country outside the United States, and this year’s awards only widened that lead. More than a third of America’s science Nobel laureates this century have ties to California, including five of the world’s nine science winners in 2025 alone.
California’s colleges and universities performed $14.4 billion in R&D in fiscal year 2024 — more than any other state.
California’s life sciences industry generated $394 billion in total economic output and supported more than 1 million jobs in 2025, including more than 400,000 direct jobs.
California is home to leading research institutions, universities, biotechnology companies, technology companies, and emerging industries that connect fundamental research to new products, companies, and jobs.
While Trump and the federal government abdicate their responsibility to protect workers from AI’s impacts, Governor Newsom is taking bold steps to keep workers safe and include Californians’ voices in shaping the future of AI. Recently, Governor Newsom announced results from the first-in-the-nation project to involve Californians in decisions about AI. Their main message: Californians should have a say in how AI is built, used, and governed. Earlier this year, Governor Newsom signed a nation-leading executive order to prepare workers and businesses for potential AI disruption, and signed first-in-the-nation legislation to protect people in the workplace from the impacts of artificial intelligence, automated technology, and AI-powered workplace surveillance.
✅ Ensuring real people review automated employment actions by prohibiting employers from relying solely on AI when making a disciplinary or termination decision.
✅ Providing more transparency by requiring employers to disclose if a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is caused by an AI system.
✅ Protecting employee privacy by banning the use of workplace surveillance tools by employers in a bathroom located in the workplace.
✅ Requiring California public higher education institutions to create training for students, faculty, and staff on AI training and procurement.
✅ Keeping lawyers responsible for practicing law by prohibiting them from fully handing over core legal work, such as drafting briefs or providing legal judgment, to AI.
Governor Newsom recently signed new legislation to continue powering California’s economic engine:
✅ Making a major update to California’s antitrust and consumer protection laws. Clamping down on anti-competitive behavior, encouraging competition, and expanding opportunities for entrepreneurs and workers — including by creating new authority for the Attorney General and district attorneys to combat monopolistic behavior while also protecting small businesses.
✅Helping retailers open and operate faster by allowing businesses undertaking certain tenant improvements to hire qualified architects or engineers to review and certify that building plans comply with life-safety, health, and building code requirements.
✅ Protecting small businesses from abusive financial practices by unscrupulous financing companies.
✅Ensuring access to small business technical assistance by supporting providers who offer free or low-cost one-on-one, confidential consulting and training. This will help small businesses and entrepreneurs start, grow, expand, and create jobs in California.
✅Cutting unnecessary red tape that has kept a lower-cost fuel option out of reach for California drivers. Removing a regulatory barrier to make E15 — gasoline blended with up to 15% ethanol — available to California drivers.
Governor Newsom launched what is now known as the Regional Investment Initiative, Jobs First, in 2021, originally the Community Economic Resilience Fund, to create good-paying, accessible jobs and sustainable economic growth by building statewide collaboratives and identifying regional strengths and opportunities.
To support this process, Governor Newsom invested $5 million in each of the 13 California Jobs First regions to develop regional roadmaps.
These roadmaps identified the industry sectors that will shape each region’s future economy, along with strategies for success and investment opportunities, all driven by extensive community input. Together, the 13 regional plans ultimately laid the foundation for the Economic Blueprint, a statewide economic vision informed by the regional plans and anchored by the strategic sectors vital for driving California’s future growth and innovation.
The plans also reached a significant milestone in California’s economic development effort when all 13 were formally designated as Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS) by the United States Economic Development Administration (EDA) in April 2025. This accomplishment marked the first time in California’s history that all 483 cities, 58 counties, and every community have a federally recognized strategy, creating new opportunities to attract and leverage investments in the implementation of these plans.
Governor Newom’s Jobs First funding has supported 333 early-stage projects. In 2025, statewide Jobs First investments totaled nearly $1.6 billion across all 13 regions, supporting more than 61,000 jobs and training for more than 142,000 workers, including projected jobs and planned training.
In June 2026, Governor Newsom’s Jobs First supported the opening of Yreka Carnegie, a rural business innovation and entrepreneurship hub serving Siskiyou County and the North State. The project received $3.65 million in state funding — $2.15 million through California Jobs First’s Regional Investment Initiative and $1.5 million through the Regional Climate Collaboratives Program — to support agriculture, outdoor recreation tourism, wood-products businesses, workforce pathways, and climate-resilient economic development.
Recently, Governor Newsom invested $48.5 million through the California Jobs First Regional Investment Initiative to support 18 projects across eight economic regions. The investments are expected to create 20,000 jobs while advancing regional economic priorities in key sectors across the state.
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