Last Updated :
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July 3, 2019
California Employment Statistics- 1,558,094 employers
- 17,354,202 employees
- $1,317 average weekly wage
- The average weekly wage is 19.6% above the national average
- The cost of living is 38.7% above the national average
Types of Employers (Private Sector vs Government Agency)
As an employer in California, you are most likely to be running a private company rather than a government agency. 97.7% of employers run private companies in the state, BIGGER0.7% greater than the national average of 97.0. The remaining 2.3% of employers are government agencies: 0.2% work in a federal agency, 0.9% work for the state and 1.2% work for local government. The chart below illustrates the breakout of employers by type.
85.7% of employees work for a private company, this is 0.5% greater than the national average of 85.2%. Local government agencies employ 10.2% of the workers in the state, state government agencies employ 2.7% of the workers and the federal government employs 1.4%. The percentage of employees working for a government agency (14.3%) is 0.5% lower than the national average. The chart below illustrates the breakout of employees by type of employer.
The average weekly wage in California is $1,317 per week, which is 19.6% less than the national average of $1,101 per week. California workers that are employed by private businesses earn $1,312 per week, 19.3% greater than the national average for private company employees. Employees of federal government agencies in California earn $1,645 per week, a premium of 25.4% compared to what employees of private companies earn. The chart below illustrates the average weekly by type of employer.
Leading Sectors
Businesses by Sector
The sector with the greatest number of businesses in the state is Healthcare with 38.7% of the businesses in the state. Professional services (9.5%) and Retail trade (6.7%) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Sectors by # of Businesses
| Sector | # Businesses | % of Bus. |
|---|
| Healthcare | 603,114 | 38.7% |
| Professional services | 147,338 | 9.5% |
| Retail trade | 104,507 | 6.7% |
| Other services | 92,183 | 5.9% |
| Accommodation and food services | 85,378 | 5.5% |
| Construction | 79,986 | 5.1% |
| Wholesale trade | 63,079 | 4.0% |
| Real estate and rental | 54,242 | 3.5% |
| Waste services | 52,481 | 3.4% |
| Finance and insurance | 51,347 | 3.3% |
| Manufacturing | 44,315 | 2.8% |
| Unclassified | 30,951 | 2.0% |
| Information | 25,488 | 1.6% |
| Arts and entertainment | 24,736 | 1.6% |
| Transport and warehousing | 24,661 | 1.6% |
| Agriculture and forestry | 16,658 | 1.1% |
| Educational services | 14,922 | 1.0% |
| Company management | 4,699 | 0.3% |
| Utilities | 1,283 | 0.1% |
| Mining and oil extraction | 785 | 0.1% |
Employees by Sector
The sector with the greatest number of employees in the state is
Healthcare with 13.4% of the employees in the state.
Retail trade (9.7%) and
Accommodation and food services (9.6%) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Sectors by # of Employees
| Sector | # Employees | % of Emp' |
|---|
| Healthcare | 2,323,278 | 13.4% |
| Retail trade | 1,682,550 | 9.7% |
| Accommodation and food services | 1,671,710 | 9.6% |
| Manufacturing | 1,319,518 | 7.6% |
| Professional services | 1,282,729 | 7.4% |
| Waste services | 1,126,675 | 6.5% |
| Construction | 859,194 | 5.0% |
| Wholesale trade | 699,109 | 4.0% |
| Transport and warehousing | 591,067 | 3.4% |
| Finance and insurance | 540,866 | 3.1% |
| Other services | 538,591 | 3.1% |
| Information | 524,786 | 3.0% |
| Agriculture and forestry | 422,898 | 2.4% |
| Educational services | 324,129 | 1.9% |
| Arts and entertainment | 315,378 | 1.8% |
| Real estate and rental | 293,584 | 1.7% |
| Company management | 252,969 | 1.5% |
| Utilities | 56,414 | 0.3% |
| Unclassified | 28,941 | 0.2% |
| Mining and oil extraction | 20,271 | 0.1% |
Average Weekly Wage by Sector
The sector that pays their employees the highest is
Information paying $3,621per week compared with the state average of $1,312.
Company management ($2,594) and
Utilities ($2,538) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Wages by Sector
| Sector | Wkly Wage | vs St Avg. |
|---|
| Information | $3,621 | 276.0% |
| Company management | $2,594 | 197.7% |
| Utilities | $2,538 | 193.4% |
| Finance and insurance | $2,464 | 187.8% |
| Mining and oil extraction | $2,378 | 181.3% |
| Professional services | $2,356 | 179.6% |
| Manufacturing | $1,838 | 140.1% |
| Wholesale trade | $1,506 | 114.8% |
| Unclassified | $1,350 | 102.9% |
| Construction | $1,348 | 102.7% |
| Real estate and rental | $1,325 | 101.0% |
| Arts and entertainment | $1,142 | 87.0% |
| Transport and warehousing | $1,096 | 83.5% |
| Educational services | $1,058 | 80.6% |
| Healthcare | $996 | 75.9% |
| Waste services | $874 | 66.6% |
| Other services | $783 | 59.7% |
| Retail trade | $705 | 53.7% |
| Agriculture and forestry | $665 | 50.7% |
| Accommodation and food services | $481 | 36.7% |
Leading Industries
Businesses by Industry
Each broad sector is made up of specific industries. In California. the industry with the most businesses is
Services for the elderly and disabled with 31.8% of the businesses in the state (with 495,810 employing 586,525 workers).
Restaurants and other eating places (4.6%) and
Offices of physicians (2.1%) round out the top 3 industries. The Top 10 Industries in the state are:
| Industry | # Businesses | Emp/Biz |
|---|
| Services for the elderly and disabled | 495,810 | 1.2 |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 71,508 | 18.7 |
| Offices of physicians | 32,508 | 7.4 |
| Unclassified | 30,951 | 0.9 |
| Computer systems design and related services | 27,335 | 11.8 |
| Private households | 25,778 | 1.3 |
| Management consulting services | 22,657 | 6.1 |
| Residential building construction | 22,389 | 5.2 |
| Offices of lawyers | 21,903 | 6.1 |
| Offices of dentists | 21,665 | 6.1 |
Employees by Industry
The industry with the greatest number of employees in the state is
Restaurants and other eating places with 7.7% of the businesses in the state. The industry employs 1,335,615 in 71,508 businesses, there are 18.7 employees on average in each of these businesses.
Services for the elderly and disabled (3.4%) and
Temporary help services (2.3%) round out the top 3 industries.
Table: Industries by # of Employees
| Industry | # Emp | Emp/Biz |
|---|
| Restaurants and other eating places | 1,335,615 | 18.7 |
| Services for the elderly and disabled | 586,525 | 1.2 |
| Temporary help services | 391,309 | 79.5 |
| General medical and surgical hospitals | 376,410 | 652.4 |
| Computer systems design and related services | 322,832 | 11.8 |
| Supermarkets and other grocery stores | 296,255 | 39.9 |
| Management of companies and enterprises | 252,969 | 53.8 |
| Offices of physicians | 240,981 | 7.4 |
| Support activities for crop production | 221,451 | 62.5 |
| Hotels and motels except casino hotels | 215,400 | 37.5 |
Average Weekly Wage by Industry
The industry that pays their employees the most is
All other information services, paying $8,173 compared with the state average of $1,312.
Internet publishing and web search portals ($6,615) and
Portfolio management ($6,330) round out the top 3 industries.
Table: Wages by Industry
| Industry | Wkly Wage | % of Avg |
|---|
| All other information services | $8,173 | 622.9 |
| Internet publishing and web search portals | $6,615 | 504.2 |
| Portfolio management | $6,330 | 482.5 |
| Credit card issuing | $6,147 | 468.5 |
| Independent artists writers and performers | $5,977 | 455.6 |
| Investment banking and securities dealing | $5,739 | 437.4 |
| Computer and peripheral equipment mfg. | $5,434 | 414.2 |
| Crude petroleum extraction | $5,412 | 412.5 |
| Miscellaneous intermediation | $5,110 | 389.5 |
| Securities brokerage | $4,518 | 344.4 |
Company Size
California Businesses by Size
The
solopreneur company, has the most businesses in California by far. 72.3% of all businesses in the state have fewer than 5 employees. The 1,462,837 small businesses in the state represent 96.7% of all private businesses. The national average is 92.6%. (Small businesses have fewer than 50 employees, Solopreneurs employ fewer than 5.) The pie chart below illustrates the ratio of business sizes.
California Employees by Business Size
The largest companies in the state represent 107.4% of all employees, which is 31.1% lower than the national average of 138.4%. Interestingly, the smallest companies in the state employ a higher percentage than the largest companies, this is not typical. The solopreneur (those that employ fewer than 5) companies employ 94.3% of all workers, which is 2.8% higher than the national average of 91.5%. All small companies, those employing fewer than 50 people, represent 438.3% of the labor force in the state, 111.7% less than the national average of 550.0%.
California Avg Weekly Wages by Business Size
The smallest companies in California (those with fewer than 5 employees) pay workers 18.2% less than the national average ($825 per week as compared to the national average of $975 per week). The largest companies in California (those with more than 1,000 employees) pay 25.0% workers above the national average ($2,511 per week as compared to the national average of $1,882 per week).
Data Sources
About the Writer
This page was created and is maintained by Kurt Tietjen, Founder of Stavera, High Peak Media & HomeGearWorks.com. Kurt is an executive, data scientist and software engineer who holds an MBA in Management Information Systems. In 2010, he partnered with scientists at Northwestern University to launch The Street Wire. This was one of the first mainstream uses of what would become “Narrative Science”, an artificial intelligence platform specializing in natural language generation. You can contact Kurt on LinkedIn here.