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

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.

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.

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