How many people are laid off in California each month?
Updates published monthly
About 180,000 in May 2025. This includes all terminations of employment by an employer — called layoffs and discharges — such as permanent layoffs, temporary layoffs, and terminations because of mergers, downsizing, closings, or employee performance.
180K
people were laid off or discharged in California in May 2025
897K
layoffs and discharges in California in 2025 so far
Layoffs are a constant in the labor market — from 2001 to 2019, there was an average of 2,504,000 layoffs and discharges a year in California. Increases in layoffs often reflect recessions or other economic disruption. For example, record-setting layoffs and discharges occurred in March and April of 2020 because of COVID-19. So far in 2025, layoffs and discharges total 897,000 in California, which is 5.1% lower than the the same period in 2024.
In California, layoffs were 5.1% lower by May 2025 than by May 2024.
Cumulative monthly layoffs and discharges in California, seasonally adjusted
Another way to consider this data is to look at the layoff and discharge rate. This puts layoffs and discharges in the context of the total number of people working by showing layoffs and discharges as a percent of employed people who were laid off during the given time period. This rate allows for better comparisons across time, industries, and places by adjusting for differences in the size of the working population.
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California’s layoff rate decreased between April and May 2025.
Seasonally adjusted US and California monthly layoff and discharge rates, December 2000–May 2025
In May 2025, 1.0% of people employed in California were laid off or discharged, a lower rate than April. Compared to the national numbers, the May 2025 rate in California was the same, meaning the same share of the California working population was laid off or dismissed in May 2025 compared to the US overall.
Average layoff and discharge rates are also useful to consider because they smooth out short-term fluctuations and clarify long-term trends.
In May 2025, California’s 12-month average layoff rate was lower than the US average.
12-month rolling average layoff and discharge rates in the US and California, November 2001–May 2025
During the first 20 years of data, the 12-month average layoff and discharge rate in the US peaked at the end of the Great Recession in June 2009 at 1.8% and during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020 at 2.4%. California’s 12-month average layoff rate was 0.1 percentage points lower than the US rate in June 2009 and was the same in May 2020.
As of May 2025, California’s 12-month average layoff rate was lower than the US overall. At 1.0%, California’s average layoff and discharge rate was the same compared to one year prior (June 2023–May 2024 average). The rate increased 0.1 percentage points compared to two years prior (June 2022–May 2023 average).
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Methodology
USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
The analysis was generated with the help of AI and reviewed by USAFacts for accuracy.
