Job Gains

As DreamWorks Animation lays off staff (and it's been going on for some time), other entertainment-related jobs in Los Angeles/California increase.

Digital jobs help drive Hollywood employment to highest level in decade

Jim Deutch took a job as creative director for branded entertainment at AwesomenessTV, the YouTube teen network, after his latest show, “Fashion Star,” ended its second season on NBC.

... Some 8,000 new jobs were added to the motion picture and sound recording sector in Los Angeles County last year, according to state jobs data. The 6.5% growth from the previous year was three times higher than all private-sector jobs in the county.

There have been signs that the California economy has been on the mend for some time. But the dramatic recovery of the entertainment sector is particularly crucial to L.A. because it pumps billions of dollars into the region's economy. ...

These new digital venues are rapidly reshaping how entertainment is delivered to consumers and provide new jobs that didn't exist when the recession began in 2007. ... The local entertainment industry had an average annual employment of 130,900 jobs in 2014, not counting freelance workers. It marks the second consecutive year of growth in the sector. ...

L.A.'s entertainment economy has managed to grow even as California loses business to rivals around the world. ...

If you look past the recent DWA unhappiness, animation's other studos continue to hire staff for newer shows (and, to be balanced here, lay off artists as shows end.) The guild has continued to process new hires at other L.A. studios, but it's easy to overlook that when DreamWorks is cratering.

The larger entertainment workforce continues on the upswing. There are niche vfx studios creating just-on-time effects for several different TV shows. There is a variety of reality programming being produced. L.A. sees scads of low-budget features made in the area, though their crews are smaller and the pay is lower than with the big-budget theatricals that now shoot in London, Vancouver, Atlanta, New York City and other places with free government money.

As noted in the article above, once California's free money starts getting distributed this summer (courtesy of AB 1839), the state should see more high-end productions landing back in the Southland, as well as more visual effects work.