Jobs get a Hollywood lift
Small firms across U.S. benefit as studios boost production of TV shows and digital content, MPAA says.
Hollywood is adding jobs and giving a boost to small businesses around the country as studios continue to ramp up production of TV series and digital content, according to a report released Tuesday by the Motion Picture Assn. of America.
The MPAA said that jobs directly related to the production and distribution of movies and television shows increased to nearly 700,000 in 2016, up about 24,000 from the prior year.
Overall, the industry supported 2.1 million jobs that year — up from 2 million in the previous year — and paid wages of $139 billion, up $4 billion.
The average salary for people who work in the core business of producing, marketing, manufacturing and distributing movies and television shows was $90,000, 68% higher than the average salary nationwide.
The new report reflects what happened in 2016 because the MPAA analyzes data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which doesn’t publish its annual results until the latter part of the following year.
A surge in TV series and streaming content production is helping to drive the growth in jobs.
“The rapid growth of creative content development and the industry’s digital transformation has bolstered the economic contributions,” the MPAA said.
The organization said the number of businesses that make up the film and television industry reached 93,000 in 2016, an increase of 5,000 compared with 2015. The businesses are located in every state in the country and the vast majority are small businesses, with 87% of them employing fewer than 10 people.
Hollywood saw $134 billion in sales in 2016, an increase of 1% from 2015, according to the report.