California launches AI unemployment tracker

Governor Gavin Newsom isn't letting California "sit on the sidelines" as AI makes its way into the workforce.

Announced today, the state will begin tracking AI-related job loss — and predicting where jobs may be impacted by AI in the future — as part of Newsom's executive order on generative AI. The data will be available for public use, via the new California AI-Unemployment Tracker, and will be updated with new work-related information monthly.

The tool was created alongside the California Policy Lab at the University of California.

"AI is advancing quickly, and workers’ concerns about what that could mean for their jobs are real. This new tracker helps replace speculation with evidence, giving us a clearer understanding of what’s changing and how to best support affected workers," said Till von Wachter, co-author and faculty director of the California Policy Lab UCLA.

The tracker's inaugural findings don't indicate widespread AI-related job loss just yet, but do show that certain "high exposure" industries and demographics are at particular risk, including tech sectors and employees in the Bay Area. According to the tracker, individuals with college degrees who are frequently exposed to AI could be most impacted by AI's encroachment into the workforce.

In an October Pew Research Center survey, around 20 percent of Americans said they used AI in some capacity at their jobs — the rise in use came predominantly from workers under 50 years of age with at least a bachelor's degree. A separate global survey of executive leadership, conducted by the Mercer consulting firm, found that 99 percent of executive leaders expected AI to impact headcount over the next two years.