Where the Jobs Are (and Aren’t) in 2025

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Earlier this month, Elaine won best online columnist in the L.A. Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. Her fall market guide covered what every studio and streamer wants to buy now, including HBO and Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, NBCU and Peacock, Disney brands ABC, Disney+, Hulu and FX, Apple TV+ and CBS, Paramount+ and Showtime. She also recently revealed fallout after a massive cache of scripts was used to train AI.

In April of this year, I wrote this below about the state of jobs one year after the writers strike began.

Jobs One Year After the Bloodbath: Hope & Pain

At the same time, I also extensively reported this past year on where the jobs are — we know where they aren’t — always trying to find the opportunity for those of you working in an industry that can frustratingly feel like it doesn’t have enough of it:

Where The TV Jobs Are Now (And Not)

Where the Jobs Are (and Aren’t), Part II

The Job Files: Netflix and NBCU

Now we’re in the last gasp of 2024, and in some ways, this year wasn’t as dreary as many feared it would be — shows are being sold and made again, though not in as great a volume as hoped — but it’s important to remember that for those who haven’t been able to find much work, the ground remains unsteady.

“I can count on one hand the number of people I know [who] are gainfully employed, so I will say it’s pretty bleak,” says one 35-year-old producer who wrote into my Salary Confessions series.

“I have been generally financially independent since I graduated college (until now), and I’ve never experienced a low this low. I feel like an absolute failure. I can’t even get interviews for jobs I am uniquely qualified for,” this person writes. “Because there is so little work, it’s hard to be satisfied. I’m embarrassed and ashamed that I can’t pay my own way anymore. Because producing doesn’t pay until something gets made, it’s hard to find the passion for my projects that I once had. It all feels pointless and hopeless.”

Few companies were in expansion mode this year. Paramount Global, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery each engaged in significant layoffs. Most agents were just trying to find work for their existing roster of talent instead of seeking out fresh blood.

“I think everyone can agree 2024 was just not a great year for hiring,” says JLS Media’s Joanna Sucherman, an executive recruiter whose clients have included NBC, Fox, Disney and other entertainment companies. “It was a year of consolidation, which meant less opportunities for people, which is unfortunate.”

So with the new year nigh and people taking stock, I want to do two things today. First, take another look at the job listings around town, and two, let you hear from more entertainment industry professionals who confided in Salary Confessions. Together, they offer a window into the realities of what all the contraction and salivating over SpinCos look like outside the executive suite, where opportunities lie — and what they mean for the future (yours in particular).

In this Series Business, you’ll learn:

• The exact number of available jobs — and what they are — in the Los Angeles area at Disney and Warner Bros.

• Which divisions are hiring

• The AI-related openings at the studios

• The best thing you can do to stand out as a job seeker according to Sucherman

• The one trait she says is more important than any other to keep your job

• Her expert outlook for the 2025 jobs market

• Why another executive recruiter believes we’re seeing “the emergence of a new breed of media professional”

• The skills that person will have to compete

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The comedown from Peak TV has been tough to digest.

Hulu and ABC, for example, combined their scripted comedy and drama teams while ABC Signature was absorbed into 20th Television, resulting in the cuts of dozens of Disney staffers.

In looking at the job listings across Disney’s Los Angeles bureaus — Glendale, Burbank, L.A. and Santa Monica — there are currently 259 openings available. (Some of those listings are listed across multiple U.S. cities or offer a remote option.) What are they?

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I would love to hear what you all feel apprehensive or excited about in 2025. Write me at elaine@theankler.com. And if you’d like to contribute your experience to Salary Confessions, click here.