The Careers Project is a study of the preparation all students in public middle and high schools receive to explore career options and the relationship between that preparation and California's state and regional economies. The California Research Bureau (CRB) undertook this research at the request of a bipartisan group of members of the California Legislature, with funding support from the James Irvine Foundation. This report discusses an economic analysis and survey of representatives of business and industry in California, which involved two parts: an economic analysis of ten industry clusters and a survey of representatives of business and industry. The information gathered from the economic analysis was used as the basis for launching a survey of representatives of business and industry in four industry clusters including: (1) Basic Information Services (including Telecommunications and Publishing); (2) The Manufacturing Value Chain (including Logistics, Production, and Design); (3) Health Science and Services; and (4) Retail Trade. The surveys three main objectives were: (1) to determine what involvement businesses have with their local public K-12 schools; (2) verify government-collected information regarding the fastest growing and largest occupations in California through 2014 and their corresponding job skills; and (3) identify any emerging trends that may not be captured by the economic data currently available. Several themes emerged from the comments that respondents offered to explain their opinions, including: (1) Students do not have the necessary skills to perform the work; (2) The quality of education varies considerably among schools; (3) While the nature of jobs has changed, the educational system has not; (4); Some industries do not expect high school students to be prepared for entry-level positions because critical jobs require post-secondary education; other industries offer extensive entry-level training; (5) Experiential learning (i.e., career and technical education) is lacking in public schools because of a focus on theory; and (6) Students are not taught "why" they need to have basic skills nor are they exposed to important industries existing in California (i.e., health, agriculture, engineering, and architecture). Appended are: (1) California Map of Nine Economic Regions; (2) Selected Industry Clusters and Sectors; (3) O*Net Job Skills; (4) Employer Survey; and (5) List of Reviewers. (Contains 15 tables and 10 charts.)