Employers face a ticking clock under California’s AI layoff order

Governor Newsom's latest performance art is an executive order that "sets a 180-day clock" for recommendations to revise California's WARN Act. Because nothing says "urgent action on AI layoffs" like a half-year study — during which, presumably, employers can carry on laying people off at their leisure. The order also demands a review of severance practices and subsidized employment programs, which is a bit like asking the fox to report back on chicken coop security. The 180-day timeline is a generous grace period for companies to figure out how to avoid the spirit of whatever recommendations eventually emerge.

The California Labor and Workforce Development Agency is now tasked with consulting "employers, labor unions, and other stakeholders" — a classic regulatory recipe for producing a document that pleases no one and does nothing. By the time the recommendations land on Newsom's desk, the AI displacement wave will have already washed through. The order's focus on "subsidized employment programs" feels like offering a life raft to someone who's already been swept overboard. And the review of severance practices? A polite request to consider whether the severance package for a job eliminated by AI should be more than a firm handshake and a "sorry."

Newsom's order is a masterclass in appearing to act without actually acting. It creates a paper trail, generates headlines, and sets a deadline far enough out that the political winds may have shifted by then. The real clock isn't 180 days — it's the one ticking for every worker whose job will vanish before the state gets around to reading the first draft of recommendations. California, home to the very companies driving the displacement, chooses a study over substance. Cheers to progress.