Even Hollywood can't find people to work
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Walk into a Starbucks on any given afternoon and odds are you'll see one to ten freelancers and dreamers writing scripts on their shiny laptops.
You'd probably sigh - frustrated that there's no room to sit - and silently curse the horde of nobodies aspiring to be somebodies.
But if you'd think that there are too many people aspiring to be in show business, you'd dead wrong.
The fact is: there actually aren't enough people working in the entertainment business right now.
In a recent note to clients, Citi's Tobias Levkovich noted that job openings in the US economy are looking "respectable," and that a number of sectors, including Hollywood, are even actually having a hard time filling jobs:
"[W]orker shortages are showing up in a number of industries including home building, trucking, welding, code programming and even recently in Hollywood as The Hollywood Reporter noted in a September 2nd article that studios are having trouble finding screenwriters, producers, directors and film crews to handle more than 400 scripted shows."
In fact, Executives and agents told The Hollywood Reporter that there are so many scripted original shows in production for broadcast, cable, and streaming outlets that are all fighting for talent.
"There's not enough people, and networks don't have the patience," a high-level studio exec told THR.
Notably, returning back to Levkovich, he also wrote that at the same time that industries are reporting worker shortages, wage pressures appear to be growing.
"Given this backdrop, a zero interest rate policy no longer seems appropriate," he argues.