BLS puts October payrolls in motion picture and sound recording at 328,400, down from 348,000 a year earlier

Payroll employment in U.S. motion picture and sound recording industries was 328,400 in October 2026, seasonally adjusted, according to preliminary estimates the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published on November 6 with its October jobs report. That is 19,600 fewer than in October 2025, a fall of 5.6%, while total nonfarm payrolls grew 0.6% over the same 12 months (our calculations).

Under the industry definitions the Census Bureau publishes, the category covers producing and distributing films, TV programs and videos, movie theaters, postproduction, record labels, music publishers and recording studios. Its October figure has fallen every year since 2022 and is now about 27% below the 448,300 of October 2022 (our calculation).

Four years of decline

The motion picture and sound recording series peaked at 456,100 in November 2022. The biggest fall in the table came between October 2022 and October 2023. BLS counted 171,500 workers in the wider information sector, which includes these industries, involved in major work stoppages that began in 2023. The series' lowest point this year was 322,300 in June, and October was 3,200 above September. Leaving aside the pandemic months from April 2020 to February 2021, the series did not fall to October's level or below at any point from March 1996 until May this year, by our reading of BLS data that go back to 1990.

Broadcasters, streamers and social networks

A second BLS series, broadcasting and content providers, covers radio and TV stations as well as what the 2022 industry codes call media streaming distribution services, social networks and other media networks and content providers. The Census Bureau's examples for that group include stand-alone streaming services, subscription video-on-demand services, cable TV networks and social network sites.

That series had 327,600 jobs in October, 15,200 or 4.4% fewer than a year earlier and 13.9% fewer than in October 2019 (our calculations). Together with September's 327,400, the two latest months are its lowest since March 1996 (our reading). The wider information sector, which also includes publishing and telecommunications, had 2.734 million jobs, 4.2% fewer than a year earlier (our calculation); BLS listed information among the industries that changed little over the month.

Within information, BLS's table also shows fewer jobs than a year earlier in publishing, in telecommunications and in computing infrastructure and data processing. Only web search portals, libraries, archives and other information services were slightly higher, at 184,300 against 183,700 (our comparison of the seasonally adjusted figures).

What the figures count

The numbers come from the establishment survey of employer payrolls. It leaves out self-employed workers whose businesses are unincorporated, and it counts people with jobs on more than one payroll once for each job. Each establishment is classified by its principal activity.

The September and October figures are preliminary. BLS revises them as more reports come in from employers and as seasonal factors are recalculated, and once a year it adjusts the survey to counts from unemployment insurance records. Over the past 10 years, that benchmark revision has averaged 0.2% for total nonfarm employment, in absolute terms. The November report is scheduled for December 4, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.