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Unemployment Insurance Claims After the LA Wildfires

August 25, 2025 |  By: Paul Lipinski, Peter Mannino, Roozbeh Moghadam, Jacob Morris, and Till von Wachter

Category: Labor

Photo of palm trees and an apartment building in LA, with LA wildfires and dark orange sky in the background

REPORT: Unemployment Insurance Claims After the LA Wildfires PDF

PRESS RELEASE: New Report Estimates 11,000 Workers Filed for Unemployment Insurance Because of LA Wildfires

The 2025 Palisades and Eaton wildfires in Los Angeles County destroyed over 13,000 homes and nearly 2,000 business establishments, displacing thousands of residents and workers. This report shows the impact the fires had on workers and local economies and highlights key insights for policymakers responding to natural disasters.

In the weeks following the fires, 6,300–8,700 more new regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims were filed than would be expected without the fires, a 12–17% increase. An additional 5,000 workers filed claims through the federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance Program.

This research is produced through a partnership between the Labor Market Information Division of the California Employment Development Department and the California Policy Lab.

Key Findings

1. An additional 6,300 to 8,700 workers filed regular unemployment insurance (UI) claims in Los Angeles County due to the wildfires. New claims for regular UI increased from about 5,000 in the week before the fire to about 12,000 in the first week after the fire, and remained elevated for several weeks.

FIGURE: New UI claims in Los Angeles County in 2025 compared to Baseline 1: Los Angeles County in 2024

 

The figure shows a line graph comparing new Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims in Los Angeles County in 2024 and 2025. The x-axis represents the weeks from November 16th, to March 8th and the y-axis shows the number of new initial claims, ranging from 2,500 to 12,500. Two lines are plotted: a solid blue line for 2024-2025 and a green dotted line for 2023-2024. A black dotted line marks the beginning of the wildfires in 2025. The solid blue line shows a substantial increase in UI claims starting January 11th 2025, while the dotted green line representing 2024 remains flat during that period. The difference between the solid blue line and the dotted green line represents the number of claims attributable to the wildfires. The data source is CPL calculations using EDD administrative data.

Source: CPL calculations using EDD administrative data. The black dotted line represents the beginning of the wildfires.

2. Between 30% and 40% of workers whose jobs were potentially impacted by the fires filed UI claims.

TABLE: Number of new UI claims attributable to the fires, and number of jobs potentially impacted by the fires

3. The impacts of the fires on workers extended well beyond the physical boundaries of fire damage and included workers who likely commuted to these regions. While the increase in UI claims was highest in fire-affected ZIP codes, significant claim increases also occurred in Central and South LA — areas untouched by the fires. ZIP codes with a higher share of commuters to fire-affected regions had larger increases in UI claims.

FIGURE: Percent change in new initial claims from Nov-Dec 2024 to Jan-Feb 2025 by ZIP

Choropleth map of Los Angeles County showing the percent change in new initial unemployment insurance claims by ZIP code between November–December 2024 and January–February 2025. ZIP codes are shaded by percentage change: dark blue for decreases greater than 10%, lighter blues for smaller decreases, and increasingly darker shades of red for increases, ranging from 10.1% up to over 500%. ZIP codes with no data are shown in light gray. Two red outlines mark the wildfire perimeters of the Palisades and Eaton fires, located in the western and northeastern regions, respectively. ZIP codes within and near the fire perimeters generally show large increases in claims, while some areas farther from the fires show decreases or little change. Data source: CPL calculations using EDD administrative data
Source: CPL calculations using EDD administrative data. Percent change was calculated by adding UI claims across November & December 2024 and January and February 2025 and taking the percent difference between them.

4. Increases in UI claims across industries and demographic groups reveal the uneven economic impacts of the wildfires across both sectors and populations. Workers in the Accommodation & Food Services industry were the most impacted, reflected in a sharp, initial spike in UI claims after the fires. Workers in the Healthcare and Social Assistance sector were also impacted, with a pronounced spike in UI claims immediately following the fires. Additionally, the increase in UI claims for workers with a high school degree or less was over 50% larger than for workers with a bachelor’s degree.

FIGURE: Percent change in new UI claims by industry before and after fires across LA County, nearby counties, and further counties, Nov 16, 2024 – March 8, 2025

Figure contains four line graphs displaying the percent change in new unemployment insurance (UI) claims by week for four industries—Accommodation & Food Services, Health Care & Social Assistance, Real Estate, and Construction—comparing Los Angeles County (solid blue), nearby counties (dashed orange), and all other California counties (dotted light blue). The x-axis covers weekly dates from mid-November 2024 to early March 2025, while the y-axis represents percent change in claims relative to the week before the fires (normalized to zero). The vertical dotted line marks the start of the fires. In the Accommodation & Food Services and Health Care & Social Assistance panels, LA County shows a sharp spike in UI claims immediately after the fires, peaking in mid-January. Nearby and other counties show much smaller or no changes during the same period. Real Estate and Construction show more modest or flat trends across all regions. The data highlight disproportionately large impacts in LA County for service-based industries following the wildfires.

Source: CPL calculations of EDD administrative data. Claims for each region are normalized so that the week before the fires represents 0 and all other weeks represent percent increases or decreases relative to that week. The “Nearby” counties consist of Orange, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Riverside, and Kern, and the
“Further” consist of the rest of the CA counties except for Ventura and San Bernardino (because they were also affected by the wildfires). The dotted vertical line represents the start of the fires.

5. Over 5,200 workers who were otherwise ineligible for UI claimed Disaster Unemployment Assistance benefits after the fires. The Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) program began processing applications on January 25th and supported workers who would not normally be eligible for regular UI, such as independent contractors, gig workers, and the self-employed.

Figure: Total number of DUA claims filed by workers living in fire-impacted areas and non-impacted areas, Jan 2025-March 2025
Figure 11 is a line graph showing total Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) claims by fire and non-fire areas in Los Angeles County from January 25, 2025, to March 29, 2025. The x-axis represents weeks, and the y-axis shows the number of new DUA claims, ranging from 0 to 1200. The graph includes three lines: the LA County Non-Fire region (blue), which starts near zero, spikes to just over 1000 claims by February 1, then gradually declines with a small bump in mid-March; the Eaton fire region (gray), which peaks below 100 claims and remains flat; and the Palisades fire region (orange), which also peaks below 100 and stays steady. The source notes that the Eaton and Palisades regions are defined by specific ZIP codes, while the non-fire region covers the rest of Los Angeles.
Source: CPL calculations of EDD administrative data. The Eaton and Palisades fire regions are defined by the blue and green colored ZIP codes from Figure 1. The Non-fire region is the rest of Los Angeles.

Suggested Citation: Lapinski, P., Mannino, P., Moghadam, R., Morris, J. Von Wachter, T. Unemployment Insurance Claims After the LA Wildfires. California Policy Lab. (2025). https://capolicylab.org/unemployment-insurance-claims-after-the-la-wildfires/

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