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California layoffs / Optum Care, Inc.

Optum Care, Inc. California Layoffs 2026: What Employees Should Know

Optum Care, Inc. has 3 layoff notices on file with California's Employment Development Department (EDD) under the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, covering 83 jobs in Los Angeles County, Ventura County. That is what the state has published since July 2025, not an all-time total. If you were one of them, here is what the filing says, how much notice the law asks for, and what to look at before you sign anything.

What the filing says

These are the details as Optum Care, Inc. reported them to the state. The EDD publishes every notice, and this page reflects the data as of Aug 6, 2026.

LocationCountyNotice givenJobs endWorkersType
TorranceLos Angeles CountyJun 1, 2026Jul 31, 20261Layoff Permanent
CovinaLos Angeles CountyJun 1, 2026Jul 31, 20262Layoff Permanent
OxnardVentura CountyJun 1, 2026Oct 3, 202680Layoff Permanent

How much notice the law requires

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff, and its only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war — far narrower than federal law's three. Who is covered and how the thresholds are counted is in our California WARN Act guide.

What this filing shows

The shortest gap in these filings is 60 calendar days between the notice date and the date the jobs end. That is at or above the 60 days the statute describes.

In dates: counting 60 days back from the Jul 31, 2026 last day of work lands on Jun 1, 2026, and that notice is dated Jun 1, 2026.

This is a fact drawn from the public filing, not a conclusion that anyone broke the law. The date an employer records is not always the date workers were told, employers of different sizes are covered differently, and exceptions can apply. Whether it means anything in your case is exactly what a free consultation sorts out.

Optum Care severance: what to check before you sign

A severance offer is not the notice pay the WARN Act describes, and an employer cannot use one to satisfy the other — and a release may give up more than you expect. What to check before you decide is in our full guide to the California WARN Act.

Two things worth doing this week either way. File for unemployment now — WARN money does not reduce it, and the filings here run through Oct 3, 2026, so you do not have to wait for your last day. And keep every document, including the notice itself and anything showing when it arrived.

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What your notice was required to include

Timing is only half of what Labor Code section 1401 asks for. The notice itself has to contain specific things, and California added most of this list for notices issued on or after January 1, 2026. Every notice on this page falls after that date. If you kept your copy, read it against the full six-item checklist in our WARN Act guide — everything federal law requires, whether transition help is being coordinated, working contact details for your workforce board and for the employer itself, and CalFresh information.

Source: Labor Code section 1401, as amended by SB 617, effective January 1, 2026. A notice missing something from that list is not automatically a violation with a remedy attached — whether a gap matters depends on the employer, the action, and what else happened.

Questions people are asking

What is the Optum Care severance package?

The WARN notice Optum Care filed with the state does not list severance terms, and we do not publish any employer's package. A WARN notice reports how many jobs end, where, and when. Severance is a separate contract offered at the employer's discretion. California law does not require it, and an employer cannot use contractual severance to satisfy what the WARN Act requires, so being offered a package does not by itself answer whether notice pay is also owed. If you have an offer in hand, the terms in front of you are the ones that matter, and they are worth reading closely before the deadline on them runs.

Am I owed severance from Optum Care, Inc.?

California law does not require severance on its own, and a severance offer is a separate thing from WARN pay. An employer cannot use contractual severance to satisfy its WARN obligation, so being offered a package does not answer whether notice pay is also owed.

Does taking the severance reduce what I could recover?

It depends on why the money is being paid. Severance the employer was already obligated to provide — under a contract, a policy, a benefit plan, or a union agreement — cannot be set against what the WARN Act requires. A payment that is genuinely voluntary and unconditional, one the employer had no legal obligation to make, can reduce that liability. Wages for work you actually performed during the notice period are not voluntary severance at all. Which category Optum Care's offer falls into is a question about the document in front of you, not about the layoff, and it is one of the better reasons to have the paperwork read before the deadline on it runs.

Why do co-workers have different last days?

The filings here list 2 separate last days of work. Employers commonly stagger a reduction so some functions run longer than others. Your own notice period is measured against your date, not the earliest one in the filing, so two people at the same employer can be in genuinely different positions.

What if I did not get 60 days of notice?

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff, and its only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war. That is far narrower than federal law, which has three exceptions. The shortest gap in these filings is 60 days, at or above the 60 the statute describes. Notice can still fall short in practice if it did not reach you when the filing says, or if it lacked what the statute requires it to contain.

Can I still collect unemployment?

Yes. Under Labor Code section 1407, WARN-related payments are not treated as wages for unemployment purposes, so they cannot be used to deny or reduce your benefits in California. You do not have to wait for your last day — the filings here run through Oct 3, 2026 — and filing early is generally better than filing late.

Does taking a new job hurt my claim?

No. Wages you earn at a new job during the notice period do not reduce what Optum Care may owe under WARN. That holds even if you start before Oct 3, 2026, the last day of work in these filings. You do not need to delay a job search to protect a claim.

How long do I have to act?

Generally three years. The federal WARN Act sets no limitations period of its own, so courts borrow the closest state deadline, which in California is the three-year period for a liability created by statute. The clock starts when you suffer an employment loss, not when the notice went out. Measured from the last day of work in these filings, Oct 3, 2026, three years runs to about Oct 3, 2029. If this was a layoff rather than an outright termination, the loss may not count until the layoff has lasted more than six months, which can start the clock later still. Treat all of it as an outer edge rather than a plan. Other claims arising from the same layoff run much shorter, and a severance offer usually carries its own deadline measured in days.

What has been reported

Press coverage of this layoff, summarized and attributed. This is reporting rather than the filing itself, and we did not independently verify it.

Becker's Hospital Review reported that Optum is cutting 92 jobs in California under notices filed June 1, 2026, with 80 of the positions tied to the closure of a management services organization in Oxnard; the remaining cuts are spread across Southern California clinic locations, including Torrance and Covina, which will remain open to patients.

An Optum spokesperson told Becker's that the company "regularly review[s] services and staffing to meet patient needs and changing market dynamics" as part of its effort to make care more affordable, and noted Optum employs more than 16,000 people in California.

Details worth knowing

  • Optum said it is supporting affected team members with job placement resources and will seek to redeploy talent to suitable open roles within the company, according to Becker's.
  • The company said its priority is minimizing disruption for patients, with teams coordinating appointments, transferring records, and supporting transitions of care, including medication access, per Becker's.

Sources: Becker's Hospital Review (opens in a new tab)

What the numbers show

  • The filings name 3 locations: Torrance, Covina and Oxnard.
  • They cover 3 separate addresses rather than a single site, so co-workers at different locations may have received different dates.
  • The jobs do not all end on the same day. The filings list 2 separate last days of work, running from July 31, 2026 to October 3, 2026.
  • The shortest gap between notice and last day here is 60 days, close to the statewide median of 61 days across every notice on file.
  • By headcount it sits in the top 50% of the 601 employer layoffs tracked here.
  • The 83 workers leaving Optum Care, Inc. re-enter a job market where Ventura County unemployment stood at 4.4% in June 2026, below the 5.2% statewide rate (Bureau of Labor Statistics, not seasonally adjusted).
  • All 3 notices are dated within a single month, June 2026, which reads as one event reported site by site rather than a rolling reduction.

These are counts and comparisons drawn from the published filings, not findings about Optum Care.

Free job-search help near the affected sites

America's Job Center of California is the state's no-cost network for laid-off workers: help filing and keeping unemployment benefits, federally funded retraining, and résumé and interview coaching. Your WARN notice may name one; these are the closest to the sites in these filings.

Locations and hours change — confirm before visiting, or find another center with the EDD's center locator (opens in a new tab). Directory: U.S. Department of Labor, Jul 31, 2026; distances are straight-line from the address in the filing.

Other layoffs filed in Ventura County around the same time

17 employers have WARN notices on file in Ventura County, covering 1,732 workers. These filed within about a quarter of this one.

Listed because they appear in the same county in the same public data. No connection between these employers is implied.

Key points

Each point is explained and sourced above · Verified August 6, 2026

Key points from Optum Care, Inc. California layoffs 2026, verified as of August 6, 2026

  • Workers affected · Los Angeles County, Ventura County · published since July 2025

    83

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Notices filed · California · published July 2025 to August 2026

    3

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Jobs end · As filed

    Oct 3, 2026

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Days between notice and last day · Arithmetic on two published dates

    60 calendar days

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Approximate outer claim deadline · 3 years from the last day of work — an outer edge, other claims run shorter

    About Oct 3, 2029

    Code Civ. Proc. § 338(a)

  • Ventura County unemployment rate · vs 5.2% statewide, not seasonally adjusted

    4.4% (June 2026)

    BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics

  • Notice California law describes · California

    60 days before a covered mass layoff

    Lab. Code § 1401

  • Available exceptions · California

    Physical calamity or act of war only

    Lab. Code § 1401

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