The Decline of AI and the Creative Class: US Media, Film and Television, and Arts Industries Lost Over 200,000 Jobs in Four Years

According to statistics compiled by Apricitas author Joseph Politano, the US creative industries have lost more than 200,000 jobs over the past four years, including about 50,000 in the past year alone; the film, television, and sound recording industry lost more than 100,000 jobs, nearly one-third of that industry's total employment. The article argues that the decline in publishing jobs is a continuation of long-term technological change, while streaming competition and AI-generated content are squeezing the video industry's business model, drawing a parallel to the situation of newspapers, whose jobs fell by nearly 85% under the impact of the internet. The author also notes that 70% of the growth in book sales over the past six years came from an unexpected boost from TikTok, illustrating that the interaction between new technology and the arts business is hard to predict.