It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC. I'm Bridget Bergen, a senior reporter in the

WNYC in Gothamist Newsroom filling in for Brian today. We were just talking

about the state of the nation's economy viewed through the lens of

policy makers who see a post-pandemic rebound versus voters who say things are worse.

Now I want to shift our attention to a sector of the local economy that should definitely

be seeing an improvement.

Actors, writers, and all of the film and television industry in the city, with the end of

the actor strike and the writers before them. the customers. Greg David has looked into this. He keeps track of the city's economy for the city news site and is the director of the business and economics reporting program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at Cuny.

Welcome back to this show, Greg David.

So great to have you here.

Thank you and thanks for having me on.

And listeners, if you've been out of work due to the writers and the actor strikes,

whether you yourself are on the picket line or just work in the film and TV production industries or adjacent businesses,

we want to hear your back to work stories.

Are you already seeing an improvement or is it taking a little bit longer than you expected for

things to get going again?

Call us at 212 433 WNYC, that's 212 433 9692. And if you can't get

through on the phone you can text that number or tweet us at Brian Laird. So Greg let's put

this into context how important is the film and television production industry

to the regional economy and what's the size of the

industry here? So it's one of our most important industries. It employs about a,000 people sort of directly,

but if you count all the people who work

...