Real fear is growing that Los Angeles’ once-thriving TV/film industry is taking a “Detroit-style” decline with Hollywood jobs evaporating over the last few years.
A staggering 30% drop in film and TV employment since 2022 has experts warning that the city is following the path of the Motor City where the auto industry used to boom, according to the U.S. Labor Department, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Recent stats show that as of March 2026, jobs in the motion picture and sound recording industries have dropped from where they were at their peak in July 2022 of more than 455 thousand jobs to 344,000.
At a March congressional hearing, California Democrat Sen. Adam Schiff met with others who work in the industry to gain support for a bill that would create a federal film tax incentive for movies to be made in the U.S.
During the hearing, Schiff noted that LA County has lost 42,000 entertainment jobs in the last two years.
“These are great jobs and we want to keep them here at home,” Schiff said. “It’s not rocket science how we do that. It’s largely drafted. It needs to be bipartisan. We are working to gather bipartisan support for this.”
Actor of the hit series “The Pitt,” Noah Wyle talked about the decline in jobs and how hard it has been on those working in the industry, saying the incentives are vital.
“It’s hard on families. It’s hard to fracture your industry that way,” Wyle said. “It’s vital to support these incentives. They are an investment in our city’s most precious commodity — they are an investment in its people.”
The loss of jobs has been particularly bad for crew members who work behind the scenes, according to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).
“Since 2022, employment for below-the-line workers is down 45 million hours, according to the union. Over the same period, the U.S.’s share of global production dropped from 52 percent to 38 percent. Most major studio tentpoles — the kind that bring bucks — now shoot in the U.K.”
IATSE President Matthew D. Loeb said during the hearing that the film and television industry “faces an urgent threat from international competition.”
“Foreign governments have successfully lured film and television productions, and the multitude of jobs they create, away from the United States with aggressive tax incentives and subsidies.”
“Films intended for initial release in the U.S. are increasingly being shot overseas — and American workers are paying the price.”
Loeb added, “In just a few years, IATSE members have lost tens of thousands of jobs across the United States. That’s thousands of families, small businesses, and communities across the country feeling the economic hardship of a shrinking industry.”
There’s been several reasons provided as to why the jobs have left, one being the high cost of production in the city, leaving studios to look at filming in places like New York, New Jersey, or even out of the country in places like Canada and Hungary, where they can get tax incentives and it’s cheaper to produce.
Studios are also making fewer shows and movies as people turn to their small screens to watch sites like YouTube and TikTok.
The introduction of Artificial Intelligence is also a problem, as studios turn to AI to do jobs that used to be done by workers. The writers and actors strike in 2023 did not help matters either.
Despite all the bad news, FilmLA, the film office for the city and county, said in a recent report that there are small signs of an industry turn around.
The report said that there had been a slight uptick in shooting on sound stages in “both project numbers and shoot days” in some of the categories which included feature films, commercials, and music videos.
“With studio occupancy levels holding steady, this report demonstrates the resiliency of the Los Angeles production environment,” observed FilmLA spokesperson Philip Sokoloski. “Many positive, pro-filming policy developments have been enacted at the state and local level over the past nine months, and more are on the way. All of these efforts to promote local production bode well for growth in sound stage utilization.”
Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom authorized a $750 million tax credit program, providing incentives for filming, though experts said it hasn’t been enough to stop the flow of productions leaving the state.
During the hearing, Schiff noted that despite these incentives, film activity in LA was “still down 13.2% from July through September” last year when compared with the same period in 2024.
The California Post reached out to Sen. Adam Schiff’s office for further comment.
