LOS ANGELES — Local production is down, dragged in part by a steep decline in unscripted projects. According to the nonprofit FILM LA, local filming of Reality TV was down roughly 57% in April to June of this year compared to the same months last year.

“There's just no work," said Kristina Hauser of Tiki Casting, pointing out that when jobs are posted, it quickly becomes a feeding frenzy. “Sometimes it'll say a thousand applicants for one casting producer job.”

Emily Hsuan has been editing unscripted TV for two decades. She counts herself lucky to still have work, even if it’s only about 60% what it used to be.

“A lot of people have literally not had post production jobs in over a year, which is just incredible," she said. 

She describes what's happening as a snowball effect. Studios are scaling back their budgets, mergers and acquisitions constantly change the production landscape and many production jobs have moved outside of California and even the country.

Given the current climate, she doesn’t think she’d recommend a young professional follow in her footsteps.

“I would really just try and dissuade them, to be honest," Hsuan said. "It breaks my heart to say that. But I just don't think it's looking good right now.”