US States California

Anaheim, CA

Although known for its beaches and Disneyland, Orange county has evolved into a burgeoning center of business, finance and education. It is home to 30 major and smaller universities and professional schools which train thousands of students each year. UCI, Chapman University are two of the world renowned schools in the area known for both their undergraduate, but their law schools as well. Anaheim has continued to be a major magnet for tourism with several theme parks and employer of thousands of people. The accompanying hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues are a major driver of the local economy. Banking, financial planning firms and insurance companies also call OC their home. Major lending, claims and processing centers along with product development are leaders in the financial and business world.

Los Angeles, CA

The economy of Los Angeles is driven by international trade, entertainment (television, motion pictures, video games, recorded music), aerospace, technology, petroleum, fashion, apparel, and tourism. Los Angeles is also the largest manufacturing center in the western United States. The contiguous ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together comprise the fifth-busiest port in the world and the most significant port in the Western Hemisphere and is vital to trade within the Pacific Rim. Other significant industries include media production, finance, telecommunications, law, healthcare, and transportation. The city is home to six Fortune 500 companies. They are energy company Occidental Petroleum, healthcare provider Health Net, metals distributor Reliance Steel & Aluminium, engineering firm AECOM, real estate group CBRE Group and builder Tutor Perini.

Oakland, CA

Oakland’s leading industries are business and health care services, transportation, food processing, light manufacturing, government, arts, culture, and entertainment. The Port of Oakland is one of the busiest ports in the world for container ships. Nearly 200,000 jobs are related to the movement of cargo through Oakland marine terminals. Chief exports at the port include fruits and vegetables, waste paper, red meat and poultry, resins, chemicals, animal feed, raw cotton, wood and lumber, crude fertilizers/minerals, industrial machinery, and cereal. Oakland’s principal imports include auto parts, computer equipment, wearing apparel, toys, games and items made of plastic, processed fruits and vegetables, fasteners and household metal products, red meat, pottery, glassware and ceramics, iron and steel, beverages, and lumber products. Oakland is an important commercial center. Approximately 13 percent of Oakland’s work force is employed in the wholesale and retail trade. The city has hundreds of manufacturing plants employing almost 9 percent of the city’s workers. Shipbuilding has flourished along the city’s inner harbor. Other major industries include electrical equipment, chemicals, glass, automobiles and trucks, and pharmaceuticals. Oakland’s leading industry sectors include business services, health care services, transportation, food processing, light manufacturing, government, arts, culture and entertainment. In 2002, Oakland was ranked the 8th best city in the nation for business in the Forbes annual survey of the Best Places in America for Business and Careers. In the mid-2000s, Oakland benefited from a strong and diverse business environment. Among its major corporations were Clorox, Kaiser Permanente, Cost Plus, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, APL Limited, and Rainin Instruments. According to the Landauer Realty Group, out of the 60 largest office markets in the United States, Oakland was expected to have the strongest market for the next several years. Items and goods produced: processed foods, transportation equipment, fabricated metal products, non-electrical machinery, electrical equipment, clay and glass products.

Palm Springs, CA

The economy of Palm Springs is driven by tourism, real estate development, agriculture, medical and leisure activities. While the Coachella Valley is known for golfing, heat and playground of the stars, it has become more of a year round community. Being only a 2 hour drive from both Los Angeles and San Diego, it is home to millions of visitors, conventions and corporate meetings annually.

San Diego, CA

The largest sectors of San Diego’s economy are defense/military, tourism, international trade, and research/manufacturing, respectively. The economy of San Diego is influenced by its deepwater port, which includes the only major submarine and shipbuilding yards on the West Coast. Several major national defense contractors were started and are headquartered in San Diego, including General Atomics, Cubic, and NASSCO. San Diego hosts the largest naval fleet in the world: it is home to 53 ships, over 120 tenant commands, and more than 35,000 sailors, soldiers, Department of Defense civilian employees and contractors. About 5 percent of all civilian jobs in the county are military-related, and 15,000 businesses in San Diego County rely on Department of Defense contracts.

San Francisco, CA

Tourism, the city’s largest private-sector employer, is the backbone of the San Francisco economy. Its frequent portrayal in music, film, and popular culture has made the city and its landmarks recognizable worldwide. Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees and self-employed firms make up 85% of city establishments as lately, it has been particularly popular with entrepreneurs establishing “start-up” companies. Many large financial institutions, multinational banks and venture capital firms are based in or have regional headquarters in the city. With over 30 international financial institutions, seven Fortune 500 companies, and a large support infrastructure of professional services – including law, public relations, architecture and design. San Francisco’s economy has increasingly become tied to San Jose and Silicon Valley, its neighbors to the south, sharing the need for highly educated workers with specialized skills. San Francisco has been positioning itself as a biotechnology and biomedical hub and research center. The Mission Bay neighborhood, site of a second campus of UCSF, fosters a budding industry and serves as headquarters of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the public agency funding stem cell research programs state-wide.

San Jose, CA

The large concentration of high-technology engineering, computer, and microprocessor companies around San Jose has led the area to be known as Silicon Valley. As the largest city in the valley, San Jose has billed itself “the capital of Silicon Valley.” Area schools such as the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Santa Cruz, San Jose State University, San Francisco State University, California State University, East Bay, Santa Clara University, and Stanford University pump thousands of engineering and computer science graduates into the local economy every year. San Jose lists many companies with 1,000 employees or more, including the headquarters of Adobe, Altera, Brocade Communications Systems, Cadence Design Systems, Cisco Systems, eBay, Lee’s Sandwiches, Sanmina-SCI, and Xilinx, as well as major facilities for Becton Dickinson, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Kaiser Permanente, KLA Tencor and Qualcomm. The North American headquarters of Samsung are located in San Jose.Other large companies based in San Jose include Altera, Atmel, CEVA, Cypress Semiconductor, Echelon, Integrated Device Technology, Micrel, Netgear, Novellus Systems, Oclaro, Online Trading Academy, Quantum, SunPower, Supermicro, Tessera Technologies, TiVo, Ultratech, and VeriFone. Sizable government employers include the city government, Santa Clara County, and San Jose State University. Acer’s United States division has its offices in San Jose. Prior to its closing, Netcom had its headquarters in San Jose.