US creative‑industry jobs fall 200,000 since 2020, analyst says
Economist Joey Politano said US creative-industry jobs have fallen by more than 200,000 in four years, the worst stretch outside a recession, and asked how much AI is to blame.
Economist Joey Politano said Sunday that the US has lost more than 200,000 jobs in creative fields such as publishing, film, TV and graphic design over the past four years. Politano writes the Apricitas Economics newsletter. He called it the worst stretch for arts employment outside a major recession.
https://x.com/JosephPolitano/status/2104282420631777488
Politano posted the figures in a thread asking "how much is AI to blame" for the decline. He did not answer the question himself in the portion of the thread reviewed for this report, and did not cite a specific data source for the job losses in the post.
Stefan Schubert, another newsletter writer, replied to the post. He noted the decline works out to a 20% fall in creative-sector jobs since 2020, "regardless of cause." No news outlet or government agency had independently confirmed Politano's figures as of Sunday evening.
The post did not name which government data series it draws on. Politano said the sector's business model, not only AI, was in question. The claim rests on Politano's own reading of the numbers, not on a published dataset this report could check directly.