San Luis Obispo’s economy has grown at a good clip in recent years, outpacing neighboring counties and the state in many areas.
Employment, wages, business activity, visitor and local spending are all up, according to Beacon Economics. Median household incomes have seen double-digit growth, as have consumer and business spending, putting the region ahead of nearby counties and the state as a whole.
Tourism and agriculture, based largely around the county’s wine industry, remain key strengths, drawing outside money to the local economy, along with Cal Poly and burgeoning industry hubs.
Tourism drives wider economy
San Luis Obispo continues to attract more visitors each year, growing an already robust tourism and hospitality industry with additional jobs and visitor spending of $1.5 billion and rising.
The impact ripples out, prompting transportation improvements, raising the region’s profile and quality of life and spurring construction. Several new hotels are going up around San Luis Obispo as well as in the surrounding beach and wine country areas, and Beacon Economics predicts activity to remain strong in coming years.
Hubs breed growth
San Luis Obispo has cultivated more than a dozen high-skilled industry hubs—concentrations of interconnected companies and related businesses in areas such as specialized manufacturing, health services and information technology—that employ about 45 percent of the county’s workforce.
“‘MindBody has proven that a billion-dollar company can grow up in SLO, and that is a massive milestone,” said Stephen Beck, managing partner at Serra Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. “The tech scene has become authentic, dynamic and real enough to pay attention to.’”
– New York Times
Even in a global economy, regional conditions are critical to success, economists say, because knowledge, productivity and innovation are best cultivated at the local level. These industry hubs spark growth by increasing productivity, spurring innovation and stimulating new business formation.
Cal Poly powers foundations and futures
Consistently ranked one of the best universities in the nation, Cal Poly is also an economic engine, generating an estimated $1.5 billion annual impact. It pioneers breakthroughs in STEM-related fields and churns out well-educated graduates, many of whom want to stay and work in San Luis Obispo.
At the on-campus Tech Park, companies including Amazon Web Services and GE Digital draw on the expertise of faculty and students, leveraging Cal Poly’s hands-on, Learn by Doing approach to applied research and development to spur innovation.
Further kindling an entrepreneurial culture is the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, hosting the HotHouse start-up accelerator and incubator programs and the Small Business Development Center, both of which have launched companies and created hundreds of jobs.