Where Are TAG Members Working?

Okay, so unionized animation is growing in Souther California. So where, exactly, are those artists and writers and tech people employed? This might help:

(Click on the technicolor pie to make it bigger.)

As you can see, we have large employers (Disney-DreamWorks) mid-size employers (Nick, Fox Animation, Cartoon Network, etc.) and a variety of smaller employees.

I've gotten inquiries along the lines of "Why is employment going up so much?" like it's a surprise. But actually the upward trend in cartoon work has been going for a while now. The question is, why is it happening? Even as visual effects work is going south. The answers:

1) Theatrical and television animation is the most profitable sector of the move and tv business.

2) Animation continues to be an evergreen product. Once it's created and starts generating revenue, it continues to generate revenue. (See Doo, Scooby, Duck, Donald and Smurfs, The among other examples.)

3) Animation, particularly television animation, is cost efficient. Half-hour cartoon episodes are created in a variety of formats (CG, hand-drawn, flash) at a variety of price points. And the younger demographic groups at which much animation is aimed are as happy to watch flash animation as they are CG animation.)

4) We are presently in a virtuous upward spiral where profits generate more cartoon creation which generates more employment.

I've likely skipped over important drivers (VFX soldier has his ideas here). Feel free to supply your own.

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The TAG membership

Since this is turning into a day of statistics, here are a few more.

Current Animation Guild Membership

2800 Active members

489 new employees (working under TAG jursidiction)

65 reinstated members ...

This gives us a grand total of 3,354 participants in the guild, the most we've ever had.

Why is this happening? Actually it's confluence of fortuitous events. Animation is the most profitable segment of filmed/recorded entertainment these days. Animation travels well from country to country, and generates lots of cash flow to eager, avaricious conglomerates. Therefore we see a lot of new activity in Cartoonland.

And cartoons have long been centered in Southern California. Though tax subsidies have pulled a lot of animation to other geographic locations, the talent pool in Los Angeles remains wide and deep. There is quality here in California, and because union density is relatively high wages remain relatively strong, pulling in more talent and building a virtuous circle.

Not perfect, of course, but better than working in cities where animation opportunities are sparse and wages are depressed.

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Where the jobs have been going ...

... in the four months since the last time we compiled this chart.

These numbers do not include the new members due to be taken in as a result of the new contract for the Nickelodeon CG department.
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The latest stats

Despite the bad news from DreamWorks, employment is back to where it was at the beginning of the year. In fact, we've got forty-seven more active members than we did three months ago.

Tomorrow, we'll tell you where we're working.
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