LOS ANGELES, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Los Angeles County's share of U.S. film and TV employment fell precipitously to 27 percent in 2023, down 8 percentage points from the year before, but Hollywood remains the industry leader, according to a new report released on Thursday.
The Otis College Report on the Creative Economy, titled "Die Another Day -- Hollywood Transformed in the Streaming Era," pointed out that film and TV jobs are growing outside of Los Angeles "will naturally raise age-old questions about Los Angeles' place within the film and TV industry, and the extent to which the industry is leaving for competing markets, threatening L.A.'s traditional role as 'soundstage to the world.'"
New York and Atlanta, which are home to the next two largest film and TV centers in the country, made up 12 percent and 2 percent, respectively, of the entertainment workforce.
While Los Angeles County's share of Film and TV employment has dipped, the industry isn't dispersing to any particular place, but many different places. This is important because it means there is no "New Hollywood" on the horizon, poised to become the new home of Film and TV activity, the report noted, stating that outside of Los Angeles and New York, no other region accounted for more than 2 percent of national film and TV employment.
The report found that film and TV industry workers in Los Angeles County earn around 50 percent of all wages paid by the industry throughout the nation and Hollywood's premium film and TV talent earns salaries 60 percent higher than the national average.
In 2013, the film and TV industry made up 64 percent of Los Angeles County's greater entertainment industry, but this share has fallen to 52 percent today, said the report.
The traditional entertainment industries of film and TV, sound, print media and broadcasting have shed jobs over the past decade in Los Angeles County, with employment down 9.1 percent, or 12,900 jobs, from 2013 to 2024. At the same time, modern aspects of the Entertainment Industry -- such as software publishers/video gamers, social media platforms, media streaming, performing arts, spectator sports and related industries, and independent artists -- have gained employment, growing 53 percent, or by 28,000 jobs, over the same period, added the report.
The report noted that Hollywood took a hit last year due to the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes, which effectively shut down film and television production for large periods of the year, leading to a roughly 40 percent drop in shooting activity and the cancellation of numerous planned projects.
Film and TV workers in Los Angeles County bore the brunt of the work stoppages -- the county's Film and TV industry shed 20,505 jobs between April 2023 and September 2023, when the WGA agreement was ratified. This represented the equivalent of 77 percent of the nation's film and TV job losses over this period, according to the report.
Otis College of Art and Design, established in 1918 as Los Angeles' first professional school of the arts, said it has long been a leading chronicler of California's creative economy, with reports issued annually since 2007.
