October 2007

California

Wildfires:

An employment and

wage profile of the

affected counties

Issues in Labor Statistics
Employment and wage profile of the counties affected by the 

October 2007 California wildfires 

In late October 2007, several major wildfires engulfed large tracts of land in the 

southern region of California, forcing the evacuation of half a million people1. Adverse 

climatic conditions contributed to the rapid spread of the fire, which has resulted in the 

loss of lives, the destruction of homes and other property, and the disruption of business 

activities. Out of 98.8 million acres2, 0.5 percent of California’s land area has been 

affected. 

On October 24, 2007, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 

designated Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, 

and Ventura Counties as eligible to receive public assistance for the wildfires3 (see Chart 

1). These seven counties comprise 26.2 percent of California’s total land area and house 

57.9 percent of the state’s population (see Table 1). As of October 29, 2007, the fires had 

burned 518,000 acres in those counties, or two percent of those counties’ total land area. 

By then, 369,000 acres had burned in San Diego County, accounting for 71.4 percent of 

the burned acreage in the counties eligible for federal aid4

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program publishes 

county-level industry data on establishments, employment, and wages based on a virtual 

census encompassing 96.4 percent5 of civilian employment in the United States. This 

profile presents county-wide QCEW data for 2006 for the areas affected by the wildfires. 

Only a very small percentage of the employment in the FEMA-designated counties may 

be directly affected by the fires. (QCEW data for the fourth quarter of 2007, which will 

reflect the impact of the wildfires, will be available in July 2008.) A map with economic 

data on the burned areas is available on the State of California website at 

http://www.calmis.ca.gov/file/maps/Southern-CA-Fires-2007.pdf. 

Establishments. As of 2006, more than half (55.4%) of California’s business 

establishments were located in the seven disaster counties (see Table 2). The 701,081 

worksites operating in these counties represented eight percent of the national total. Over 

half of these establishments were located in Los Angeles County, which had 390,766 

worksites. Orange County had the second largest number of businesses, with 95,046 

establishments. San Diego County was a close third with 91,732 worksites. The business 

establishments in these three counties represented 6.6 percent of all establishments in the 

country and accounted for 82.4 percent of the establishments in the seven counties 

eligible for public assistance due to the fires. 

Employment. In the seven FEMA-designated counties, employment was at 8.8 

million in 2006. This total represented 56.6 percent of California’s employment and 6.6 

percent of national employment. Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties are 

among the ten counties with the largest employment levels in the nation. The seven 

million workers employed in these three counties alone accounted for 79.6 percent of the 

employment in FEMA-designated counties. San Diego County, which had 13.7 percent 

of its land area burned, had 1.3 million workers in 2006. 
Wages. California employers distributed $750 billion in wages in 2006, or 13.2 

percent of the nation’s total wages. The $405.6 billion in wages disbursed in 2006 within 

the counties eligible to receive disaster assistance accounted for 54.1 percent of 

California’s wages and 7.1 percent of all wages paid in the United States. Los Angeles 

County workers received slightly less than half of these wages. The average annual pay 

for employees in the group of counties receiving federal disaster aid was $46,192; this 

was 4.5 percent below the State’s average annual pay of $48,345, but 8.6 percent higher 

than the national average annual pay of $42,535. Among the seven counties, Orange 

County had the highest average annual pay, $49,126; Riverside County had the lowest: 

$36,251. 

Industry employment distribution. The trade, transportation, and utilities 

supersector was the largest sector in the seven-county area in terms of private industry 

employment, with 1.7 million jobs accounting for 10.8 percent of California’s total 

employment and 1.2 percent of national employment. Nearly 60 percent of this 

employment was found in the retail trade sector. The second largest employment total in 

the area was in the professional and business services supersector, which employed 1.3 

million workers and accounted for 8.3 percent of California’s employment. The nearly 

923,000 workers in the manufacturing supersector in the seven counties represented six 

percent of the jobs in California. Jobs in education and health services (893,851) and 

leisure and hospitality (893,333) each accounted for 5.8 percent of the State’s total 

employment. 

Industry wage distribution. Within the private sector in the affected counties, the 

professional and business services supersector had the largest total wage payments in 

2006—$67.5 billion. These wages represented 9 percent of the State’s total wages and 

1.2 percent of national wages. The trade, transportation, and utilities supersector followed 

closely with $65.6 billion in wages disbursed, which represented 8.8 percent of 

California’s wages. Wages in the manufacturing supersector in the disaster counties 

accounted for 6.6 percent of the State’s wages. The information supersector had the 

highest average annual pay in the area, $80,352, which was 88.9 percent higher than the 

national average for the same time period. The next highest average annual pay ($71,424) 

went to workers in the financial activities supersector. The other services supersector had 

the lowest average annual pay: $23,315. 

Government. The federal, state, and local governments in California’s affected 

area employed 1.2 million workers in 10,005 worksites. This employment represented 

eight percent of all of California’s workers. The average annual pay these government 

workers received was $50,853 in 2006 with the disbursement of $62.9 billion in total 

wages. 

These establishment, employment, and wage data are from the QCEW program in 

the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data presented here are for all workers covered by State 

and Federal unemployment insurance programs. For more information on the impact of 

California fires on BLS programs, please visit http://www.bls.gov/californiafires. For 
additional information regarding QCEW data, contact Robert Viégas, an economist in the 

Division of Administrative Statistics and Labor Turnover, Office of Employment and 

Unemployment Statistics. E-mail: viegas.robert@bls.gov. Telephone: 202-691-5162. 

Information in this summary will be made available to sensory-impaired 

individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200. Federal Relay Service: 1-800-

877-8339. This report is in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. 

 

Notes: 

 

1

 500,000 Flee Raging California Fires (Associated Press), see 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/24/ap/national/main3400923.shtml. 2

 Census 2000 Summary File 1 (U.S. Census Bureau), see 

http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-

CONTEXT=gct&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_GCTPH1_US9&-redoLog=false&-

_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=&-format=US-25|US-25S&-_lang=en. 3

 Designated Counties for California Wildfires (Federal Emergency Management Agency), 

see http://www.fema.gov/news/eventcounties.fema?id=9045. 4

 Southern California Fires at a Glance (State of California), see 

http://gov.ca.gov/index.php/issue/wildfires/#activity. 5

 Percentage of the Current Population Survey’s total wage and salary workers employment estimate 

covered by QCEW employment totals in 2006. 
California

Nevada

Oregon Idaho

Arizona

Utah

San Bernardino

Riverside

San Diego

Los Angeles

Ventura

Santa Barbara

Orange

Pacific Ocean

Chart 1. Counties designated by FEMA

as eligible to receive public assistance

Source: Disaster Summary For FEMA-1731-DR, California. October 24, 2007.
Table 1. Population and land area for FEMA-designated counties for California wildfires

July 2006 

Census 

estimate

Percentage 

of State

Percentage 

of US Amount1 Burned2

Percentage 

of area 

burned

United States 299,398,484 - - 2,263,961 - -

California 36,457,549 - 12.2% 99,814 - -

Los Angeles County 9,948,081 27.3% 3.3% 2,599 104 4.0%Orange County 3,002,048 8.2% 1.0% 505 28 5.5%Riverside County 2,026,803 5.6% 0.7% 4,613 1 0.0%San Bernardino County 1,999,332 5.5% 0.7% 12,834 14 0.1%San Diego County 2,941,454 8.1% 1.0% 2,688 369 13.7%Santa Barbara County 400,335 1.1% 0.1% 1,752 1 0.0%

Ventura County 799,720 2.2% 0.3% 1,181 03 0.3%

Total Affected4 Area 57.9% 21,117,773 7.1% 26,171 518 2.0%

NOTE: Totals may not add up because of rounding.1. Census 2000 Summary File 1 (U.S. Census Bureau).2. Southern California Fires at a Glance, Oct. 29, 2007 (State of California). 3. Thirty-five acres were burned in Ventura County.4. Totals for affected counties, not burned areas.

Area

Population Land area (in thousands of acres)
Table 2. Establishments, employment, and wages for FEMA-designated counties for California wildfires, 2006 a

Annual 

Average

Percentage 

of State

Percentage 

of US

Average Annual 

Employment

Percentage 

of State

Percentage 

of US

Total Wages 

(in millions)

Percentage 

of State

Pe

United States 8,784,027 - - 133,833,834 - - $5,692,569 - 

California 1,265,069 - 14.4% 15,503,144 - 11.6% 749,505 - 

Los Angeles County 390,766 30.9% 4.4% 4,161,761 26.8% 3.1% 201,918 26.9% Orange County 95,046 7.5% 1.1% 1,514,873 9.8% 1.1% 74,419 9.9% 

Riverside County 42,760 3.4% 0.5% 633,940 4.1% 0.5% 22,981 3.1% San Bernardino County 45,568 3.6% 0.5% 654,679 4.2% 0.5% 24,270 3.2% San Diego County 91,732 7.3% 1.0% 1,313,949 8.5% 1.0% 60,157 8.0% Santa Barbara County 13,561 1.1% 0.2% 184,981 1.2% 0.1% 7,460 1.0% Ventura County 21,648 1.7% 0.2% 317,030 2.0% 0.2% 14,414 1.9% 

Total Affected Area 55.4% 701,081 8.0% 8,781,213 56.6% 6.6% 405,620 54.1% 

Private Sector 691,080 54.6% 7.9% 7,543,560 48.7% 5.6% 342,681 45.7% 

Natural Resources and Mining 3,614 0.3% 0.0% 87,923 0.6% 0.1% 2,696 0.4% 

Construction 39,598 3.1% 0.5% 514,191 3.3% 0.4% 24,341 3.2% Manufacturing 29,693 2.3% 0.3% 922,790 6.0% 0.7% 49,151 6.6% Trade, Transportation, and Utilities 108,653 8.6% 1.2% 1,670,834 10.8% 1.2% 65,601 8.8% Information 13,015 1.0% 0.1% 301,322 1.9% 0.2% 24,212 3.2% Financial Activities 56,345 4.5% 0.6% 554,027 3.6% 0.4% 39,571 5.3% Professional and Business Services 93,335 7.4% 1.1% 1,292,224 8.3% 1.0% 9.0% 67,509 

Education and Health Services 56,204 4.4% 0.6% 893,851 5.8% 0.7% 5.2% 38,659 

Leisure and Hospitality 49,793 3.9% 0.6% 893,333 5.8% 0.7% 2.8% 21,307 

Other Services 240,665 19.0% 2.7% 412,623 2.7% 0.3% 1.3% 9,620 Unclassified 169 0.0% 0.0% 449 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 15 

Government 10,005 0.8% 0.1% 1,237,656 8.0% 0.9% 8.4% 62,938 

NOTE: Totals may not add up because of rounding.1. Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Area/Industry

Establishments Employment Wages