California governor Gavin Newsom just announced a statewide tracker that follows AI-related unemployment claims—and said it’s the first tool of its kind in the country.
Created from a partnership between the governor’s office, the California Employment Development Department (EDD) and the University of California’s nonpartisan California Policy Lab (CPL), the California AI-Unemployment Tracker monitors AI-related job loss by using statewide data on unemployment insurance claims.
With planned monthly updates, it breaks down claims by region, industry, age, education, race, ethnicity and gender. The launch follows an executive order signed by Newsom in May, which called upon state agencies to develop policies that would support workers at risk of AI-related job loss.
“California has always been a place that embraces innovation while taking seriously the responsibility that comes with it,” Newsom said in a press release.
“We’re shaping the future — and charting the course for the nation,” Newsom added. “As AI advances, we aren’t just watching from the sidelines; we’re reimagining how we prepare California through strong governance and innovative policy.”
The tracker comes at a time of uncertainty about AI and its impacts on the labor market. According to tech layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi, more than 121,000 tech employees have been laid off this year.
While some AI leaders have called AI an excuse for job cuts, some companies have admitted that AI has played a role in mass layoffs. After Oracle laid off 21,000 employees in the last year, the company’s most recent annual report stated that the “deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce.”
According to the tracker’s accompanying report, no evidence points to a statewide surge in layoffs among AI-exposed workers. Other data has suggested that few workers in the U.S. have actually been replaced by AI in practice since the rise of LLMs, and that many organizations have used AI as a scapegoat to distract from the actual reasons behind layoffs.
There are, however, early signs of AI disruption across specific industries and regions, the report said.
For example, unemployment insurance claims increased among college-educated workers in AI-exposed roles. Claims among master’s and PhD degree holders in highly AI-exposed roles increased from an average of 13,000 claims per month in November 2022 to 16,000-22,000 claims per month since mid-2023. In San Francisco, claim rates among AI-exposed workers were also elevated—but the rate in the Bay Area has been consistently higher, even before generative AI tools became widely accessible.
The report’s authors said that the tracker “is intended as an early warning system” and “not a definitive measure of AI’s impact on jobs.”
“This tool helps us see early signals of AI-driven change as they happen, giving policymakers a chance to respond before disruptions spread,” said the report’s co-author and UCLA economics professor Till von Wachter in the press release.
“As AI evolves, timely data will be critical to helping California stay ahead and adjust key workforce programs to meet the moment,” von Wachter added.
