Variety
The Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. is forecasting a solid improvement in Hollywood’s employment picture with an addition of 16,500 showbiz jobs this year and another 15,100 slots next year. The mid-year forecast, released last week, estimated that regional entertainment employment will hit 155,300 jobs this year — 137,400 people in the motion picture and sound industries and 17,900 in television and radio. Those numbers are forecast to reach 170,400 in 2011, with 152,400 in motion picture/sound and 18,000 in broadcast. If the forecast pans out, the numbers would represent a turnaround from recent years. The forecast cited a trio of factors for the brightened outlook — the positive reception to the state’s film incentive program; more pilots ordered by broadcast and cable nets; and “strong” growth in the international box office. Does this uptick in California signal a turn-around in the entertainment economy that we can expect to see reflected in Seattle?