The New York City Economy Tracker 🔯is a joint project between Investopedia and , using publicly available data to evaluate the economic health of the city across a variety of metrics.

For the week of August 7, 2023, we’re looking at how jobs in New York City's film and TV industries have declined since the pandemic, and the impact of the writers' strikes on NYC's film industry.

Jobs in Film and Sound Recording Ind🧔ustries in NYC Have Declined

Jobs in the film and sound recording industry in NYC have mostly been trending downward the past few years, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) State and Metro Area Employment, Hours, & Earnings.

As of June 2023, payroll jobs in the industry are almo♛st 11% below their post-pandemic hig🙈h in September 2021 and over 9% below levels in June of 2019.

This decrease in film industry jobs comes as strikes by both the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) have brought the industry to a halt nationwide over the summer.

Indeed, according to data from the NYC Mayor's office of Media and Entertainment, the two-week trailing average of film permits for TV shows and movies in the city declined from a high of almost 19 on February 17, 2023 down to just under 7.5 on May 1, 2023 before stopping completely after the WGA strike.

A continued standstill could have significant impacts not only to the industry, but tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚo the broader New York City economy.

Film, TV, and Related Industries Are a Major Part of NYC’s Eꩵconomy

The film and TV industry (and other related industries) are a huge part of NYC’s economy. The industry contributes about $165 million in taxable sales, $6 billion in taxable wages, and employs an annual average of over 50,000 New Yorkers, according to data from the New York State Department of Taxation and the BLS.

♏ However, the full economic impact of 💛the film and TV industry NYC’s economy is likely far greater than what the data shows.

As of 2019, the film and TV industry brought in as much as $64.1 billion in revenue and self-employment receipts, according to a 2021 study by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater, and Broadcasting. That’s about 4% of NYC’s total economic output when including workers in TV broadcasting, advertising and media buying, subscription programming, talent, post production, and distribution and consumption industries.

Additionally, the study estimates that the broader TV and film industry also contributes over $12 billion ꦆin wages and about 100,000 jobs.

Film and TꦅV Job Recovery Particularl꧅y Slow in NYC

The future o🅰f the job market for the TV and film industry is particularly uncertain in NYC. Even before the writers and actors strike started, the recovery of jobs since the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly slow in New York City compared to other major cities with a large industry presence.

According to data from the BLS Quarterly Census 🐼of Employment and Wages, jobs in the film industry in New York City in December 2022 were over 7% below what they were in December of 2019. Only Atlanta had a worse decline at almost 9% over the same period. Meanwhile, jobs in Nashville’s film industry grew 3.4%, and Los Angeles had over a 28% increase. Continued job losses in the film industry could worsen an already lagging labor market in New York City.