BURSTUnemployment claims in the Los Angeles metropolitan area climbed by 12 percent to 17 percent due to the devastating effects of the Palisades and Eaton blazes, which ripped through the region this past January, a new report has found.
The jobless claims soared not only within the fire zones but also in neighborhoods farther from the blazes, such as south and central Los Angeles, according to the report, released by the nonpartisan California Policy Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
The report examined the job-related aftermath of a destructive series of January blazes — particularly the Palisades and Eaton fires — which erupted early in the month and killed more than two dozen people, while destroying thousands of homes and businesses.
“The economic impacts extended beyond the Palisades and Altadena, as workers who live in areas like South and Central L.A. but commuted to work in the fire areas also filed for unemployment,” co-author Till von Wachter, faculty director of the lab and a UCLA professor of economics, said in a statement.
The report also identified significant increases in claims from workers in low-wage industries, such as accommodation and food services, as well as among those with lower levels of education.
Between about 6,300 and 8,700 people in Los Angeles filed for regular unemployment insurance due the blazes — representing the 12 percent to 17 percent increase beyond expected numbers for a fire-free season.
The authors made these estimations by harnessing administrative unemployment insurance claims data via a long-standing partnership between the Climate Policy Lab and the California Employment Development Department. Equipped with these figures, they were able to develop a comprehensive picture of how the blazes burned through local labor markets in the area.
Beyond the 6,300 to 8,700 people who filed for regular unemployment insurance, an additional 5,000 workers requested federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance, according to the report. Among these applicants were gig workers, independent contractors and self-employed workers — who are usually excluded from regular unemployment insurance, the researchers noted.
Those additional filings brought the total number of workers who submitted claims to between 11,300 and 13,700, per the report.
In total, between 30 percent and 40 percent of workers whose jobs were possibly affected by the wildfires ended up filing unemployment claims.
Low-wage industries endured the biggest toll, with claims from workers in hospitality and food services exhibiting “a sharp, initial spike” after the fires, according to the report. Those in health care and social assistance also endured “a pronounced spike” in submissions in the immediate aftermath of the blazes, the authors found.
Related to these surges, the increase in unemployment claims for workers with a high school diploma or less was 50 percent greater than that of college-educated individuals, per the report.
Reflecting on the results, co-author and senior data analyst Peter Mannino noted the report’s capacity to identify “key differences in who was impacted by the fires.”
His colleague von Wachter, meanwhile, emphasized “the critical role that unemployment insurance benefits can play in supporting people after natural disasters.”
The findings, he added, could also offer insights that could “be helpful for future disaster response planning and targeting relief to impacted people.”