Cluster Initiatives

The central Puget Sound is home to a diverse, broadly distributed set of industrial clusters. The Prosperity Partnership analysis has identified fourteen primary clusters: Business Services, Military, Head Offices, Life Sciences, Long Term Care, IT, Aerospace, Boat Building, Wood Products, Speciality Food, Tourism/Visitors, Logistics & International Trade, Electronic Shopping, Environment & Alternative Energy, and Sound Recording.

The Prosperity Partnership originally selected five pilot clusters for analysis and strategy development, based on a number of criteria. Specifically, the current Regional Economic Strategy focuses on (1) Aerospace, (2) Clean Technology, (3) Information Technology, (4) Life Sciences, and (5) Logistics and International Trade.

In 2008, the Prosperity Partnership will be revising the strategy by conducting cluster strategy development for two new industry clusters - Military and Tourism/Visitors - including (1) economic data collection and analysis, (2) recruitment and facilitation of a working group that is representative of the cluster’s diverse stakeholders and (3) the creation of a report based on tangible recommendations from the groups that indicate specific steps, timelines and implementation responsibility. The revised Regional Economic Strategy will be released in December 2008.

Central Puget Sound Region's Clusters   PDF version

Regional Cluster Size and Growth   PDF version

The bubble size signifies 2003 total employment by cluster. CAGR refers to the compound average annual growth rate.

Map of Employment Concentrations for the Five Pilot Clusters
   PDF version [6 views]