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Feb 3, 2026

Governor Newsom's statewide Jobs First investments created more than 61,000 jobs, trained more than 142,000 workers in 2025

What you need to know: Governor Newsom is driving historic, locally-informed economic growth through the California Jobs First initiative, investing nearly $1.6 billion in 2025 across all 13 economic regions and creating tens of thousands of new jobs, sparking business development, and advancing new high-impact projects.

ORANGE COUNTY – Today, Governor Newsom continued his California Jobs First tour in Orange County, highlighting the nearly $1.6 billion in investments from 2025 that went to train more than 142,000 workers and help create more than  61,000 new jobs across California's 13 economic regions. This first-of-its-kind initiative is accelerating economic momentum across the state by empowering regional strategies, investing in high-growth sectors and expanding access to good-paying jobs.

These historic investments were announced alongside the celebration of Orange County's Jobs First regional plan — which will help advance life science, high-tech, advanced and precision manufacturing, and travel and tourism in the region.

California is proving once again that when we invest in people and innovation, we build an economy that works for everyone. Jobs First is driving historic progress in every region of the state by backing regional priorities, doubling down on key industries, and creating opportunities for Californians where they live and work.

These plans were built from the ground up by local partners, for their communities. From tribal nations and rural regions to major economic hubs, California is leading the nation with economic development shaped by the people it's meant to serve.

Governor Gavin Newsom

California Jobs First: Bold vision, realized locally

In 2021, Governor Newsom launched a statewide economic development planning process which became California Jobs First in 2023. The objective was to create good-paying, accessible jobs and sustainable economic growth across the state's 13 regions, with each region launching a planning body — or collaborative — with representation from a wide variety of community partners, including labor, business, local government, education, environmental justice, community organizations, and more. The collaboratives then wrote their own data-driven, community-led economic plans, including identifying strategic industry sectors.

Launched in early 2025, the California Jobs First Economic Blueprint laid out a statewide economic vision anchored in ten strategic industry sectors and informed by those 13 region-specific plans. Since then, funding has flowed into communities across California, growing the economy and creating job opportunities up and down the state.

Notable state investments and activities from the past year include:

✅Regional Investment Initiative:

• Implementation Phase: In August 2025 $80 million was awarded to 11 projects spanning 7 regions as part of the Regional Investment Initiative's first phase of implementation funding. Funding was awarded to four project clusters, focused on sectors including aerospace and defense, life sciences, agtech and farm equipment.
• Tribal Phase: In June 2025, the state awarded $15 million to 14 California Native American tribes to support economic development initiatives, job training programs, environmental stewardship projects, business growth and research and development.
• Wildfire Relief: In February 2025, $3 million was awarded to the LA Jobs First Collaborative to support the region in recovering from the wildfires that impacted the Altadena and Pacific Palisades communities. This funding is supporting a campaign to promote the local tourism industry and small businesses community, as well as quarterly comprehensive economic impact reporting and analysis.

✅California Competes Tax Credit: Over the course of 2025, California awarded tax credits to 21 companies choosing to expand or relocate in the state, spurring $2.56 billion in capital investment and creating 4,591 new jobs.

✅California Film & Television Tax Credit: In 2025, tax credits were awarded to 155 film and television projects, which are collectively expected to generate nearly $5 billion in economic activity and 33,391 cast and crew jobs across 6,292 filming days.

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✅Employment Training Panel: In 2025, the panel invested over $82 million through 299 contracts with California businesses to support the training of 70,544 workers.

✅ Apprenticeships: The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) and its Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) awarded over $91 million in 2025 to expand apprenticeship opportunities, benefiting more than 69,000 apprentices and pre-apprentices.

✅ High Road Training Partnerships (HRTP): The 2025 HRTP investment of $18.5 million aims to increase access to existing High Road jobs for underserved populations and create pathways for incumbent workers seeking job growth with High Road employers. These projects will train over 3,100 workers and are tailored to focus on one or more of the strategic sectors in their region(s) as identified in the Jobs First Blueprint.

✅California State Trade Expansion Program (STEP): Throughout the 2025 federal fiscal year, STEP grants supported 204 California small businesses, resulting in a reported $33 million in export sales and the creation or retention of 254 jobs. These export activities took place on every continent except Antarctica, highlighting the global reach of California's small business community.

✅"Bet" Sector Investments: California is doubling down on its emerging "bet" sectors, including fusion and quantum. In November 2025, the state launched Quantum California, a new statewide initiative uniting government, academia and industry to accelerate quantum innovation, grow jobs and secure California's leadership in this critical field. November also saw the first major gathering of the state's fusion ecosystem at the 2025 California Fusion Energy Convening, signaling significant momentum in another frontier technology sector.

"This year showed what California can accomplish when state agencies, regional collaboratives and local partners rally around shared priorities," said GO-Biz Director Dee Dee Myers. "Jobs First is aligning sector investments and business development in ways that create measurable, lasting impact for communities up and down the state. The progress made in 2025 is only the beginning, and we look forward to supporting the next wave of high-impact projects across all thirteen regions."

"Through California Jobs First, we're strengthening the pathways that connect people to stable careers in growing industries. In 2025, we expanded training, apprenticeship, and regional partnerships across California," said Stewart Knox, Secretary of the Labor & Workforce Development Agency. "This year, we're scaling that work so more Californians can access clear routes into good-paying jobs."

All these key investments from 2025 build on more than $286 million in prior years' funding through the Regional Investment Initiative.

Advancing state-of-the-art sectors in Orange County

Today's event, hosted at Medtronic, celebrated the implementation of Orange County's Jobs First regional plan, which identified life science, high-tech, advanced and precision manufacturing and travel and tourism as priority sectors for their region.

The medical device technology (medtech) industry is a critical sector for the continued success and growth of Orange County's regional economy, employing more than 21,000 workers. Across the state, there are more than 13,600 medtech companies, accounting for more than 30% of the medical device industry revenue across the United States.

Fostering Regional Engagement and Collaboration

Throughout 2025, the California Jobs First Council, including nine Cabinet-level agency principals collaborating to promote economic development, met with leaders in four of the 13 regions — Redwood Coast, Bay Area, Capitol and Southern Border — to hear directly from regions about their economic priorities, Tribal economic development needs and emerging opportunities across communities.

And as part of the Regional Investment Initiative award process, the Council also hosted an Investment Summit in San Francisco in June that saw 35 project leads pitch bold ideas to private philanthropy and funders, sparking funding for the innovations shaping the next wave of California's economy.

Strengthening Workforce Alignment

2025 marked a major milestone in workforce development with the release of the Master Plan for Career Education by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Designed to complement the Jobs First initiative, the Master Plan aligns education, training and career pathways with the jobs envisioned in each region, ensuring California's workforce is prepared to meet the needs of fast-growing industries. The Plan aims to expand access to good-paying careers by serving 500,000 apprentices by 2029.

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Accelerating building and development

Governor Newsom signed groundbreaking  legislation in 2025 to cut red tape and streamline construction, building on the past six years of work with the legislature. Namely, AB 130 and SB 131 that provide regulatory relief for many critical housing and economic development projects, including for advanced manufacturing, from CEQA.

In addition, the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation launched a process to update the state level General Plan Guidelines, including updated guidance for economic development elements.

On top of that, the recently launched Business Ready Sites Program features an interactive web-mapping tool showcasing fully zoned and entitled sites suitable for headquarters, research & development and industrial manufacturing facilities.

Looking ahead

The California Jobs First initiative will continue driving impact this upcoming summer  with $45 million in implementation funding through the Regional Investment Initiative, which will help regions expand access to job training and business development. The Jobs First team will also host a second investment summit planned for April 2026, where regions will pitch their highest-impact projects to attract additional private and philanthropic funding.

California's economic dominance

California remains the fourth-largest economy in the world. With an increasing state population and recent record-high tourism spending, California is the nation's top state for new business starts, access to venture capital funding, and manufacturing, high-tech (https://mclist.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=afffa58af0d1d42fee9a20e55&id=a1ee87c9b5&e=b733c274e0), and agriculture (https://mclist.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=afffa58af0d1d42fee9a20e55&id=3c3e70094c&e=b733c274e0).

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