The motion picture and sound recording industries shed 1,100 jobs in March for a total of 337,400, down from 350,700 during the same month a year ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, broadcasting and content providers added 100 jobs for a total of 334,200, up from 340,000 during March 2025.
Overall, the U.S. economy added 178,000 jobs last month, blowing past expectations with the biggest gains in sectors including healthcare, construction, transportation and warehousing. The unemployment rate hit 4.3%, while average hourly earnings rose by 9 cents to $37.38. For the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.5%.
The number of long-term unemployed individuals, defined as those jobless for 27 weeks or more, changed little at 1.8 million in March, but is up by 322,000 over the year. The long-term unemployed accounted for 25.4% of all unemployed people for March. The number of total unemployed people was little changed at 7.2 million.
BLS also revised its data for January, which added an additional 34,000 jobs for total growth of 160,000; and February, which shed an additional 41,000 jobs for a total loss of 133,000 jobs. Surveys conducted by the BLS for this report were completed by March 12.
The update comes as the U.S. media and entertainment industry continues to be rocked by layoffs, with the shutdown of CBS News Radio and rounds of cuts most recently at Netflix, Starz, Axios, CNBC, Spotify’s The Ringer, the talent agency WME and “Fornite” creator Epic Games.
The pending $110 billion merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, which is expected to close by the third quarter, has also put Hollywood on edge about more potential job losses due to media consolidation. Paramount executives expect to generate over $6 billion in synergies from the deal, with the majority to come from non-labor sources such as merging streaming tech stacks and consolidating the combined real estate portfolio.
DirecTV and a group of state attorneys general have also sounded the alarm about the recently approved $6.2 billion merger between local TV station owners Nexstar and Tegna, warning it would “irreparably drive up consumer costs, reduce local competition, shutter local newsrooms and increase both frequency and duration of blackouts of key local teams and network programming.” Nexstar and Tegna expect to generate approximately $300 million in synergies from the deal.
A judge has put that deal on pause with a temporary restraining order and is set to hear arguments on Tuesday.
