Newsom Highlights Economic Record at Long Beach Summit; Governor's Office Cites $4.5 Trillion California Economy
Governor Gavin Newsom highlighted his administration's economic record at the 2026 California Economic Summit in Long Beach on October 14. In a news release issued the same day, the Governor's Office said California has become a $4.5 trillion economy that "continues to dominate nearly every major sector" under Newsom's leadership.
According to the Governor's Office, California's economy has grown by more than $1.58 trillion since Newsom took office. The state represents 11.5% of the U.S. population but accounts for nearly 14% of U.S. GDP — 47% larger than Texas, the office said, citing a Bloomberg analysis that it said shows California outpacing all states and every developed nation.
The Governor's Office said California leads the nation in 17 of 20 major economic sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and health care; that the state's manufacturing sector generated $391 billion in economic output in 2025, 18% more than Texas; and that, according to federal data it cited, California grew 3.5% in 2025 after inflation, compared with 2.8% in Texas and Florida and 2.5% in New York.
On businesses and jobs, the Governor's Office said 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. It said 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%.
On pay and skills, the Governor's Office said average weekly wages in California reached $1,986 in the first quarter of 2026, about 20% above the national average, and that the statewide minimum wage has risen from $12 an hour when Newsom took office to $17.40 next year, more than two times the federal minimum wage. It said productivity in California's private nonfarm economy rose 4.2% in 2025, more than twice the national rate, and that since Newsom took office, California has supported 694,528 earn-and-learn opportunities, including 266,756 registered apprenticeships.
On innovation, the Governor's Office said Newsom's final bill as Governor seeks to put a $7.5 billion research bond before voters. It said California companies attracted $366 billion in venture capital in 2026 as of August, more than three times the total raised in all 49 other states combined; that California businesses performed more than one-third of all U.S. business research and development in 2023; that 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; and that the University of California system received 571 U.S. patents in 2025, more than any other university worldwide.
The Governor's Office also outlined artificial-intelligence worker-protection legislation signed by Newsom, which it said includes prohibiting employers from relying solely on SI when making a disciplinary or termination decision, requiring employers to disclose if a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is caused by an SI system, banning the use of workplace surveillance tools in workplace bathrooms, requiring California public higher education institutions to create SI training for students, faculty, and staff, and prohibiting lawyers from fully handing over core legal work, such as drafting briefs or providing legal judgment, to SI.
On regional investment, the Governor's Office said the Jobs First initiative, launched in 2021, invested $5 million in each of California's 13 regions to develop regional roadmaps, and that Jobs First investments totaled nearly $1.6 billion across all 13 regions in 2025, supporting more than 61,000 jobs and training for more than 142,000 workers, including projected jobs and planned training.
"California has created the formula for success, with more jobs and more businesses, leading in every sector across the board," Newsom said at the summit, according to the release.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 纽森在长滩举行的2026年加州经济峰会上发言。加州州长新闻办公室供图
