Key points
- Otis College's April 2026 research finds California's creative economy shed about 22,300 jobs in 2025, a 2.9 percent fall.
- The research finds AI is not the main cause of those losses: industry restructuring, cost pressures and changing consumption patterns are.
- Core creative workers grew 2.1 percent while creative wages rose 23 percent, so support roles are being shed rather than creative ones.
Summary
The 2026 edition of Otis College's long-running research program on California's creative economy comes in two parts: the annual Update on the Creative Economy and a companion study, Creative Disruption: AI and California's Creative Economy (2022-2025), launched together on 7 April 2026. Together they document a creative workforce that is contracting while restructuring: about 22,300 jobs lost in California in 2025, a 2.9 percent fall against 1.8 percent nationally, with 60 percent of the state's losses in a single sector, film, television and sound. The research's central finding runs against the prevailing account: AI is not identified as the main driver of the job losses. The contraction is attributed to industry restructuring, cost pressures and changing consumption patterns, with AI reshaping the composition of tasks rather than substituting for workers. At the same time the number of core creative professionals grew by 2.1 percent and creative-economy wages rose 23 percent, a pattern the researchers read as the sector shedding support functions while strengthening its creative base.
Related items
Source
Source: Otis College of Art and Design (with Westwood Economics and Planning Associates) ↗ (Sector Org)
Cite this item
Patrick Adler & Taner Osman (2026). ‘Otis College Report on the Creative Economy 2026: Creative Disruption, AI and California's creative workforce’, Otis College of Art and Design (with Westwood Economics and Planning Associates). Available at: https://www.otis.edu/about/initiatives/creative-economy/index.html
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