BLS 10-Year Projection: 2024-2034
Typical entry: Some college, no degree, Long-term on-the-job training.
Of the 63,000 projected openings, approximately +100 are from job growth and 62,900 from replacement needs (retirements, career changes).
Employment is projected to move from 2024 (57,000 jobs) to 2034 (57,100 jobs), a net change of 100 jobs.
Total projected openings over the projection period: 63,000. This includes growth and replacement needs.
What Annual Openings Mean for Actors
The annual openings estimate describes the volume of actor job openings expected in a typical year. It gives you a year-by-year view of openings across the occupation, while the ten-year projection describes the overall direction of employment. The estimate describes openings across the occupation as a whole.
For an individual actor, the annual total provides context about the scale of yearly openings across the occupation. It does not say how openings are distributed among actors or how many any one person may obtain. Use it to understand the occupation’s annual volume, alongside the separate long-term outlook.
What the Ten-Year Projection Shows for Actors
Actor employment is projected to change very little over the next decade. For someone weighing this career, that points to a largely stable overall workforce size, with little net expansion in the projection. The outlook describes the projected direction of total actor employment across the occupation.
This projection gives a long-range view of how the occupation’s total headcount may shift. It can help set expectations: the forecast points to little change in the number of actor jobs across the period. Actors considering the career can use this context alongside other factors, while treating the projection as a broad occupation-level estimate.
Employment Trend
| Year | Total jobs, incl. self-employed |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 57,000 |
| 2034 | 57,100 |
Projection based on BLS Employment Projections (base year vs. projected year).
What This Means
The outlook points to a largely steady field, with only modest projected expansion, so workers should plan for a market that may offer limited overall growth. Annual openings indicate that opportunities will continue to arise, though the figures do not establish how competitive any individual opportunity will be. For prospective and current actors, practical planning means building a sustained approach to finding work and keeping expectations for broad expansion measured.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Employment Projections & OEWS) | Data year: 2025 | Last updated: July 1, 2026