Let me be straight with you: if you’re wondering about the Hollywood job market right now, you are not likely to take a liking to what I have to say. But here, someone has to tell you the actual truth without putting it in a sugar-coated pill and that is what we do at GetTheCareer.
The Hollywood job market in 2026 is just that friend who cancels plans at the last minute. You know the one. This is 42,000 jobs disappearing into thin air in the last two years instead of canceled brunch plans. Yeah, you read that right. Forty-two thousand. That is as if the whole community of a small city is rendered jobless.
The Numbers That’ll Make You Spill Your Coffee
Do you remember that everybody thought streaming would rescue Hollywood? As Netflix was spending money like a drunkard? It is disco deader than those days. The Hollywood job market has shrunk so much that Oscar-winning sound mixers are finding it difficult to get work. We are discussing those individuals who literally sat at home working on Pocahontas thinking when the phone will ring.
According to FilmLA, on-location production fell 22 percent in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same quarter of 2024. But wait, it gets worse. The region experienced the highest production in 2021 of 18,560 annual shoot days. By 2024? That number crashed to just 7,716. That decreases by 58.4 percent in three years. FilmLA president Paul Audley described 2024 as the worst year ever, not counting COVID. And 2025? Even worse.
When the Dream Factory Stops Dreaming
In 2025 alone, more than 17,000 jobs in the entertainment industry were cut. and it is not only that we are talking about the usual starving artist crowd who have the time off between performances. Marketing people, development people, accounting personnel, who could have been considered safe have their pink slips handed out to them. The employees of Paramount, Amazon, Netflix, and, to a greater extent, of Warner Bros. Discovery are witnessing their colleagues go the way of Hunger Games in a corporate version.
Alex Zaragoza is a TV writer, who has four years and one-half of joblessness, having worked on TV shows such as Lopez vs Lopez and Primo. She is literally sitting with face in hands wondering when it would get better. And she’s not alone. The atmosphere in Hollywood is so rotten, according to industry observers, as never before.
The Streaming Bubble That Burst
You wanna know what happened? Netflix happened. In 2022, when the streaming giant made the first subscriber decline in ten years, the entire house of cards began to collapse. Their stock dropped by 35 percent, destroying 50 billion dollars of their market value in a single day. That gave the town a shock-wave through all studios. Everyone that had been scrambling to imitate the Netflix approach of throwing money at everything got to the brakes suddenly.
Peak TV? More like Past TV. Gone are the days when all the individuals in the queue at Blue Bottle sold an animated series. Studios stopped buying. The executives became fearful of risking. And in 2026, we continue to consume the residue of projects which were greenlit prior to COVID.
AI: The Elephant (or Should I Say Robot?) in the Room
Now let’s talk about the thing that’s keeping everyone up at night: artificial intelligence. The Hollywood job market is about to get hit by what some are calling an “AI tsunami.” According to a study surveying 300 leaders in the entertainment sector, three-fourths reported that AI tools have already assisted in destroying jobs in their firms. It is projected that almost 204,000 jobs or 20 percent of the total jobs in the industry will be negatively impacted in the coming years.
First to be chopped are sound editors, 3D modelers, concept artists, voice actors, and workers at the lower end. Special effects and after-effects? Extremely vulnerable. Disney has just entered into a 1 billion dollar contract with OpenAI to license 200 of its characters to be generated by AI. Bob Iger is already discussing the way AI will assist them to work more effectively. Translation: reduced human requirements.
It is no idle word of filmmaker Justine Bateman, herself a degree holder in computer science at UCLA. According to her, AI is an existential threat and threatens that once they are capable of executing actors, they can execute writers, directors, and cinematographers as well. Directors, such as Rian Johnson (the guy who made Knives Out) claim that AI is making everything worse in every single way.
The Jobs That Still Exist (For Now)
But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are even positions that are increasing. The visual development artists may anticipate 8 percent growth by 2026. Professional colorist is receiving an average of between $55,000 to 120000. Supervisors who are familiar with Nuke and Adobe After Effects can command between $80,000 and $160,000. The money is going to the pipeline technical directors, or the people who ensure the existence of all the complex software.
Executive producers remain on the food chain and they receive an average of 150,000 to 500,000 a year. The only thing though is that to reach that level, you need to have connections, experience, and a lot of luck. There are hundreds of production coordinators and assistants barely making a living to each successful EP.
Where the Work Actually Is
Sting here you, California, is now sixth in the world in filming. Behind Toronto. Behind the UK. Second in the ranking after Vancouver, central Europe, and Australia. Governor Gavin Newsom is considering increasing the Film & Television Tax Credit Program in California by a factor of five to seven hundred million every year but will it work? Doubtful.
Companies are migrating to destinations that will provide attractive taxation. The cities of Georgia, New York and Toronto have constructed their bases of workers. They do not have to import individuals anymore. So even in case production is enhanced by the world, it might not help the Hollywood job market in Southern California.
The Future Looks Like a Question Mark
Hollywood is simply pins its entire hopes on the Paramount-Skydance merger. Once that actually passes through, people are hoping that it will be the beginning of the end of the consolidation mess and a restart of the buying and manufacturing process. Yet with Netflix currently acquiring Warner Bros in the last thing anyone expected that no one can tell.
A few optimists believe that we will have a revival of the indie films due to the ease of production with the help of AI tools that are now cheaper. AI studio Secret Level founder Jason Zada is hopeful 2026 will be a breakthrough year, and the first film produced with the help of AI will be released this year. That is a cold comfort to the thousands of below-the-line employees who had developed careers based on the traditional ways of production.
Matthew McConaughey already lets Eleven Labs clone his voice. He has interests in the company, and he is considering the idea of licensing his voice to any advertisement company or studio. Sure it is a new source of revenue to him. The question is, what about the other voice actors who are not A-listers? They’re screwed.
Real Talk: Should You Even Try?
So is the Hollywood job market worth pursuing in 2026? Look, I’m not gonna lie to you. You should have an alternative plan in case you are considering moving to LA and entering the industry immediately. And a contingency to your contingency. Almost 2/3 of industry practitioners report that they feel good about their own careers, yet over 50% report their salaries falling this year.
Manny Shaw, the first credit bystander in This Is Us, has been hired to cut podcasts all the way to cleaning his church to make ends meet through the recession. Individuals who have been in the job market since decades are seeking employment in Whole Foods. The reality television producer Paulina Williams who has been involved in the production of Laguna Beach and Big Brother during 20 years experienced the longest unemployment spell of her life and even thought of quitting the industry altogether.
The counsel of those who are hanging on? Diversify your skills. Master AI tools despite your hatred of them, as resistance to the tide ia not going to end it. Develop your network with obsession. Look at project management, digital marketing, or content creation positions where transferable skills are applicable. And perhaps, possibly, continue with that side hustle.
The Bottom Line
The Hollywood job market isn’t dead, but it’s definitely on life support. The business that brought wealth to an ecosystem of 360-degree studios, networks, producers, actors, writers, directors, agents, managers, lawyers and below-the-line craftspeople have been transformed radically. As possibilities to find financial success are now reduced to studios themselves and a thinly sliced elite talent such as Taylor Sheridan.
However, that is the thing about disruption, it will always give opportunity somewhere. Perhaps not in the old Hollywood that you had in mind. Perhaps not on the same salary or security. However, there are possibilities of inventors who are ready to change, develop, and accept the mess. Now the leading TV platform has been YouTube. In 2025, the creator economy went to space. Independent voices are reaching out without support of the studio.
So yeah, the Hollywood job market looks rough in 2026. It is unpredictable, it is frightening, and it is certainly not the golden age people speak about with the sense of nostalgia. However, in case you are creative, tough, and can adjust and switch gears where needed, then there could be a place where you belong. But just don’t imagine that you are going to look anything like you do on the movies.
