Job Exposure to Wildfire Risk in the American West

Emily Joiner, Margaret A. Walls and Matthew Wibbenmeyer
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Emily Joiner: Resources for the Future
Margaret A. Walls: Resources for the Future
Matthew Wibbenmeyer: Resources for the Future

No 25-08, RFF Reports from Resources for the Future

Abstract: Increasing development in high wildfire hazard areas contributes to rising damage costs from fires. While researchers have documented expansion of residential development in high wildfire hazard areas, they have paid less attention to businesses and jobs. Yet growth in residential development and in local economic activity can often reinforce one another, and direct and indirect impacts to businesses can be an important component of overall wildfire damages. We use comprehensive data from the National Establishment Time Series Database from 1990-2020 to examine employment growth across wildfire hazard categories within 11 western US states. Our analysis finds that employment grew 0.5 percentage points faster annually, on average, in the highest wildfire hazard areas than in the region as a whole. Many of the jobs—and much of the job growth—is located within six regional “hotspots.” California has the most jobs in high and very high wildfire hazard areas, comprising 60 percent of the total jobs in these areas in 2020. Additionally, we find that jobs in the highest wildfire hazard areas are slightly lower-paying than jobs in lower wildfire hazard areas on average. We identify millions of jobs within high and very high wildfire hazard areas, motivating additional research on job disruption and workplace and employee impacts from wildfires.

Date: 2025-04-14
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