Hollywood employment drops 30% as productions leave California

Hollywood is facing a sharp and sustained decline in employment and production activity, with a new Wall Street Journal report warning that Los Angeles risks following the path of Detroit after that city’s auto industry collapsed.

Production measured in Los Angeles shoot days has fallen from 36,792 in 2022 to just 19,694 in 2025, according to FilmLA research, and some 41,000 workers left the industry between 2022 and 2024. L.A. County’s motion picture and sound recording jobs dropped from roughly 142,000 in 2022 to around 100,000 by late 2024. 

According to the Journal, behind-the-camera workers logged 36 percent fewer hours since 2022.

At a congressional field hearing in Burbank last month organized by Sen. Adam Schiff, California Democrat, “The Pitt” star and executive producer Noah Wyle described the situation as “a near-cratering of our once-thriving industry,” citing the combined toll of productions leaving the state for tax incentives, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2025 wildfires. Mr. Wyle said Los Angeles County lost roughly 42,000 film and television jobs between 2022 and 2024, while high-budget productions dropped about 43% last year. 

On-location television production days in Los Angeles fell from 18,560 in 2021 to 6,582 in 2025, according to the Journal. Productions have increasingly moved to the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, where tax incentive programs can provide a 50% discount on production costs, as well as to countries like Hungary with cheaper labor.

Industry insiders are calling for a federal tax break to counter those incentives. California has moved to expand its own film and television tax credits, but the effort has not been enough to retain productions, as other costs, including construction and union crew fees, remain significantly higher than competing locations. Mr. Schiff has spent the past year working to build congressional support for a federal production incentive that would layer on top of existing state-level subsidies. 

Changing viewer habits have compounded the financial pressures, with a desire to cut production costs and competition from other filming locations all contributing to the reduction in Hollywood jobs, according to the Journal. The rise of streaming initially drove a surge in production, but that growth has since leveled off as platforms have pulled back on content spending.

The Journal concluded that Los Angeles faces an entertainment economy “evaporating with no signs of a turnaround,” and that many observers fear Hollywood could come to resemble Detroit — with corporate headquarters remaining in the city while the actual work is done elsewhere.