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LOS ANGELES — Kalison Studios today released the Local Hire Rate™ (LHR) Report, the first systematic study measuring how effectively film production markets worldwide convert incentive spending into jobs for local crews. Spanning 77 markets across 31 U.S. states and 46 international jurisdictions, the study finds that workforce readiness — not incentive size alone — is the primary driver of whether production dollars stay in a community or leave with the crew that brought them.

Across the 77-market portfolio, the study identifies $2.5 billion in annual crew wages currently paid to imported workers in positions that local, trained workers could fill. The Local Hire Rate measures the share of below-the-line (BTL) crew wages — the departments that physically build, light, dress, and operate a production — earned by workers who live in the market where production takes place. No metric has tracked this at comparable scale. The report does not argue against production incentives but demonstrates that ROI can be optimized to retain significantly more crew wages locally.

Key Findings

• $41.5 billion in annual production spend across the 77-market portfolio generates $13.3 billion in below-the-line crew wages.
• $3.0 billion in crew wages leave production markets annually, paid to imported workers rather than local crews. Of that, $500 million reflects Department Head positions requiring specialized experience typically unavailable locally.
• $2.5 billion of that leakage is addressable — representing positions in departments where local workers can be trained and hired through targeted workforce programs.
• Approximately 91,000 addressable jobs are currently filled by imported crew in roles that do not require the specialized experience of a Department Head.
• Each +1% improvement in the portfolio-wide LHR retains an additional $133 million in annual wages for local workers.

What Workforce Readiness Looks Like

California and the United Kingdom demonstrate what's possible at scale. Both operate at 98% LHR, retaining more crew wages locally than any other markets in the study, with New York close behind at 95% LHR. California achieves this through decades of domestic industry depth; the UK achieves it while still importing a greater share of its Department Heads from abroad — proof that workforce training can close the gap even in markets that depend on international senior talent.

New Mexico shows what the journey looks like. The state has maintained its production incentive for more than 23 years and its LHR has risen 8 percentage points over the past decade, reaching 82% today. A market that once imported the majority of its crew now fills more than four out of five positions locally.

The Market Opportunity Score™

The report introduces the Market Opportunity Score™ (MOS), a composite index identifying where workforce investment will produce the greatest return. The MOS combines each market's LHR headroom, production volume, and wages retained per percentage point of improvement.

Georgia ranks #1 with a 72% LHR where the remaining 28% of headroom represents $8.3 million in recoverable wages for every percentage point of improvement. The top five also include Australia, Ireland, New Jersey, and Texas, each representing distinct workforce development opportunities scaled to their production volume.

Select Market Data

The full report covers all 77 markets with individual Local Hire Rate estimates, Department Head import analysis, and Market Opportunity Scores.

Availability

The Executive Summary and Methodology Overview are available for free download at research.kalisonstudios.com. The full 77-market report is available for purchase. Institutional and government pricing is available upon request.