Hollywood Job Market – The Real Impact of the Strikes

Earlier this month, Deadline reported on a labor study from Otis College of Art and Design that describes the entertainment job loss as 17% this year between April and October. While nearly a 20% decline in jobs is an eye-popping number, it seems to understate the impact of this historic double strike in Hollywood. The primary sources for the study were the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and California Employment Development Department (EDD), which conflate many entertainment industry categories and do not accurately represent the acute economic impact on the TV and film industry.

In reality, the job loss for those working on scripted production was much worse, with ProdPro data showing a 97% decrease in production spend in California in Q3 2023 compared to the previous year. The actual spend was $75M, down $2.6B from the same period in 2022. ProdPro data is supported by FilmLA, which tracks filming days by production type (scripted TV, films, commercials, etc) and shows a similar complete halt to scripted TV production in Q3, the main driver of jobs for the sector.

The Otis study also makes use of job posting data to make inferences on the labor impact of the strikes. This could further distort the narrative on the TV and film production job contraction that has occurred, given how few jobs in scripted TV and film production are ever posted on such job sites.

ProdPro tracks the scripted TV/film market with more precision, providing a bottom-up analysis of production volume and spend by region. Learn more about how ProdPro provides more timely and accurate transparency into what's happening in the TV/film market.