California launches first public dashboard tracking AI job losses

California on June 25 launched the California AI-Unemployment Tracker, a public dashboard built to monitor whether artificial intelligence is beginning to displace workers. The first-in-the-nation tool links unemployment insurance claims with occupational AI exposure measures, and it will be updated monthly.

The tracker was developed by the California Policy Lab at UCLA, the California Employment Development Department and the governor’s office. Its underlying data are available for public use, and the dashboard breaks out job-loss trends by industry, region, education and demographic group.

Tracking AI-Related Job Loss Using Unemployment Insurance Claims Data in California found that as of May 2026 there was no evidence of a statewide surge in layoffs among workers in highly AI-exposed occupations. Early data did show signs of strain in narrower parts of the labor market: unemployment insurance claims rose among college-educated workers in high-AI-exposure jobs, and claims also increased in the San Francisco Bay Area and in technology sectors.

Gov. Gavin Newsom tied the release to California’s broader effort to prepare for the economic shock AI could bring. His May 21 executive order, N-6-26, directed state agencies to study and prepare for AI-driven workforce disruption and framed the work around helping workers, small businesses and communities adapt. The dashboard is meant to guide where job-search support, retraining, upskilling and health-coverage guidance may be needed most.

Till von Wachter, a faculty director of the California Policy Lab at UCLA, called the new tracker a way to “replace speculation with evidence” and help policymakers “respond before disruptions spread.” Ben Hyman, a senior researcher at the lab: “We are not seeing evidence of large-scale AI-related layoffs in California’s labor market right now.”