United States · NAICS 512 · Annual, 2025
Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries in the United States
Employment, establishments and average pay for NAICS 512 in the United States, 2004–2025, from DTG's QCEW-based estimates.
In 2025, Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries (NAICS 512) employed about 361,300 people in the United States across roughly 40,222 establishments, with average annual pay of $89,840.
Employment in Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries in the United States grew 22.2% from 2020 to 2025. Quarterly values, full industry detail and projections to 2036 for the United States are included with a free account. County-level detail is part of every paid plan, or one county free for seven days.
- 361,300Employment, 2025
- 40,222Establishments
- $89,840Avg. annual pay
- 0.2%Share of U.S. jobs
Employment, 2004 to 2025
Annual average · all ownerships
Annual employment, 2004–2025: 2004 380,700; 2005 373,900; 2006 372,700; 2007 377,700; 2008 380,700; 2009 360,300; 2010 369,000; 2011 365,000; 2012 371,800; 2013 380,100; 2014 384,300; 2015 404,700; 2016 438,500; 2017 424,600; 2018 422,400; 2019 433,900; 2020 295,600; 2021 365,300; 2022 439,100; 2023 378,000; 2024 377,300; 2025 361,300.
Last ten years
Annual · 10 years
| Year | Employment | Estab. | Avg. annual pay | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 361,301 | 40,222 | $89,837 | 4.3% | pub. |
| 2024 | 377,328 | 40,556 | $91,727 | 0.2% | pub. |
| 2023 | 378,035 | 40,365 | $84,706 | 13.9% | pub. |
| 2022 | 439,100 | 38,759 | $86,990 | 20.2% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2021 | 365,323 | 36,273 | $96,246 | 23.6% | pub. |
| 2020 | 295,637 | 34,461 | $93,669 | 31.9% | pub. |
| 2019 | 433,863 | 33,072 | $73,991 | 2.7% | pub. |
| 2018 | 422,384 | 31,551 | $71,629 | 0.5% | pub. |
| 2017 | 424,575 | 29,668 | $68,097 | 3.2% | pub. |
| 2016 | 438,500 | 29,223 | $65,228 | 8.3% | pub. |
† Not disclosed in QCEW; DTG estimate.
The full history from 2004 and quarterly values are available with a free account.
Where these numbers come from
Reading these figures
The figures on this page come from one named vintage, stated below, and are annual values for all ownerships combined. Where QCEW withheld a value, the marked figure is an estimate that DTG produced under the constraints of the published record; suppression is a property of QCEW, not of DTG, and a withheld value is marked rather than silently omitted. Two things DTG itself holds back, and says so where it does: an estimate that cannot be given a reliability score is not shown, and average pay is not shown where fewer than three jobs are reported. The row is marked withheld, with the reason in a note beneath the table. The mark is on every row that carries a value: the headline, the yearly history, the subsectors and the other states. An estimated value that rounds below one is shown as less than one, not as zero. Quarterly figures, county figures and projected years are in the app.
How this figure was built
Employment is the average of the three monthly counts in each quarter, averaged across the year, and establishments are averaged across the year the same way. Average annual pay is the year’s total wages divided by that average employment. Each of these is DTG’s value: QCEW’s published figure where QCEW disclosed it, and DTG’s estimate, marked, where it did not. How withheld values are estimated, and what the reliability score beside a figure means, are described on the industry data and disclosure and provenance pages.
Notes
Data Tactical Group is an independent company and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any federal agency.
Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries in the United States, quarterly, at full depth
This page shows annual figures for motion picture and sound recording industries in the United States. A free account shows every detailed industry beneath it, quarterly, for every state, with projections to ten years. No card.
County figures, file export and the API are on paid plans.