California just built the thing everyone in tech policy has been asking for: an actual dashboard that tracks whether AI is eating jobs in real time. The California AI-Unemployment Tracker, or CAIT, went live on June 25, making it the first tool of its kind in the US to connect AI exposure data with unemployment insurance claims.
What CAIT actually does
CAIT was built by the California Policy Lab at UCLA in partnership with the state’s Employment Development Department. It cross-references unemployment insurance claims with data on which occupations and sectors face the highest exposure to AI technologies.
The tracker delivers monthly updates, giving policymakers something closer to a live feed than the lagging employment statistics they’ve historically relied on.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed the executive order enabling the initiative on May 21, roughly five weeks before the tool launched. The directive called on state agencies to build “responsive, data-led frameworks” to anticipate labor market disruptions from AI adoption.
