California has built the first state tool to watch for AI wiping out jobs. The early read: no mass layoffs yet, but warning signs are flashing in the Bay Area and among college-educated workers.
Everyone argues about whether AI is killing jobs. Almost nobody has hard data. California has now built a tool to find some. The state has launched what it calls a first-in-the-nation system to track AI-related job loss as it happens.
The dashboard is called the California AI-Unemployment Tracker, or CAIT. Governor Gavin Newsom announced it on Thursday and called it an early warning system. His office built it with the California Policy Lab, a nonpartisan research centre at the University of California, and the state Employment Development Department.
The method is the clever part. It takes California’s monthly unemployment-insurance claims and tags each one by how exposed the worker’s old job was to AI. Track that share over time, and a trend should surface before the headlines do. The data updates every month, and anyone can download it.
What the numbers show so far
