California’s economy is now the fifth largest in the world, with a 2002 Gross State Product of $1.3 trillion – one-eight of the total U.S. economic output. Although California’s economy is diverse, it is driven by knowledge-intensive industries – many of which were invented by UC innovations or grown by UC faculty and alumni.

The growth of the region where an industry takes root and flourishes requires a synergy between technological innovations, skilled workers and companies. A key link between UC research, UC workforce development and California’s economy, industry “clusters” are the drivers of regional and state economic growth.

Six industry clusters in particular are critical to the current performance and future vigor of California’s economy – biosciences (pharmaceutical firms, medial laboratory research and biomedical instrument manufacturing), computers and semiconductors, information technology, telecommunications (communication services and equipment manufacturing), aerospace, and agriculture.

Excluding agriculture, the five urban-based industry clusters employ more than 1.4 million Californians. And while only a small percentage of California’s total employment, these industries form California’s export base and contribute disproportionately to the state’s economic growth.

A leading state in the biosciences, California is home to several of the most dynamic bioscience regions in the country – metropolitan San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles. In 2001, the bioscience cluster employed some 217,000 Californians. Similarly, nearly a quarter of a million Californians were employed in the computer and semiconductor cluster. Aerospace employs close to 80,000 people in the Los Angeles region, a regional proportion that is more than two times the national average. In addition to employment growth, labor productivity, in telecommunications and aerospace for example, has also sustained California’ competitive advantage in these clusters.

UC’s workforce contribution to these key clusters is significant: UC will produce more than 3,000 undergraduates who will enter cluster-related fields in California in 2002. Through 2011, this contribution is estimated to total more than 34,000 undergraduates in science and engineering jobs. The impact of UC graduates in these industry clusters is estimated at $887
million in Gross Regional Product for 2002 and $7.4 billion between 2002-11. State and local government revenues resulting from UC undergraduates entering the workforce is estimated at $2 billion through 2011.

UC’s Regional Cluster Programs
UC-Industry Partnerships
California Institutes for Science and Innovation
Technology Transfer
Growing California’s Agriculture
UC in Europe