Employment in California's medical device industry remains relatively stable during the great recession, according to a report by California Healthcare Institute.

Medical device makers in California shed fewer than 2% of their workforce over the last 5 years, suggesting that the industry remained relatively resilient during the great recession, according to a new report by the California Healthcare Institute.

The medical device industry shrank from 73,119 employees in 2007 to 71,947 in 2011, a change of about 1.6%.

Most of the job losses came during the height of the financial collapse of 2008, according to the report, released at the 2013 J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco.