TV and Film Writing Jobs Plunge 27 Percent From Peak

People who write movies and TV shows are finding fewer jobs than they used to.

The writers' union, called the Writers Guild of America West, counted about 5,072 writers who earned money in 2025.

That is about 27 percent fewer than in 2022, when almost 7,000 writers got paid.

Companies are making fewer scripted shows because they spent too much money for too long.

Writers who still have jobs are earning about the same total amount, so the pay is shared by a smaller group.

TV writers lost more jobs than movie writers did.

Movie writers actually earned more money in 2025 than in any of the past five years.

Writers also get money called residuals when shows are rerun or streamed, and that amount went down a little.

For the first time ever, streaming residuals went down instead of up.

The union says these numbers are not final and could change later.