The UK’s video production and film industry has shown incredible resilience post pandemic by recovering rapidly. In fact, according to data from the British Film Institute, a whopping £5.64 billion was spent on film and high-end video production in the UK in 2021 and the industry is set to grow to over £7 billion by 2025, showing just what a powerhouse the UK is when it comes to film and video.
As one of the country’s leading video production companies, we of course already knew this (but it’s still nice to hear). In order to keep pace with this demand though, our booming industry will need to find an estimated 21,000 new workers over the next three years, according to data from ScreenSkills.
With this in mind, we decided to take a closer look at the video production jobs landscape, delving a little deeper into what roles are being searched for, and where. We’ve analysed hundreds and thousands of Google search terms relating to video production roles in the UK over the last two years to understand where the talent is and what roles are in highest demand.
Here’s what we found out:
Editor and producer jobs are most searched for video jobs in UK
According to our research, which looked at 29 search terms across 11 locations*, video producer and video editor jobs are the most searched for roles in video production today, receiving 30,000 and 30,500 searches per year respectively. This is followed by production assistant jobs with 14,280 annual searches and videographer jobs with 12,120.
And demand for these roles is increasing rapidly. In fact, there has been a 50 percent year on year increase in video editor jobs from 2021 to 2022, a 60 percent increase in production assistant jobs and a 30 percent increase in videographer jobs.
Commenting on the results, Definition’s, Jamie Field, said:
“Our research definitely shows how quickly the video and film industry has bounced back from the pandemic. The industry is growing rapidly and this is reflected in the increase in video related job searches we are seeing.
Producer roles are the most in demand roles in video and typically the hardest to fill, so it’s encouraging to see such an increase in producer related job searches in particular.”
Not only are producer and editor jobs the most searched for, they are also the fastest growing. We found that:
- Liverpool has seen a 400 percent year on year increase in producer job searches
- Glasgow and Birmingham have seen a 133 percent and 100 percent year on year increase in producer job searches respectively
- Video editor job searches have increased by 120 percent year on year in Birmingham, 150 percent in Manchester, 200 percent in Sheffield and 100 percent in Bristol
Speaking of the increase in production assistant jobs from 2021 to 2022, Jamie said:
“A lot of companies were forced to massively scale back their staffing during Covid so this is yet another stat showing how fast we have bounced back as an industry.
But we also saw a lot of people looking for a career change either because of being furloughed, made redundant or just wanting to reassess their work/life balance and so this increase in assistant jobs could also be indicative of people looking for a move into video as a result of the pandemic.”
Birmingham fastest growing city for video talent with biggest year on year growth in video related job searches
While London still commands the highest number of searches per video production job role, our data shows that Birmingham is showing the biggest year on year (YoY) growth across the board.
Our research shows that Birmingham has seen a noticeably bigger YoY increase in video related job searches than London from 2021 to 2022:
Commenting on the growth in the Birmingham area, Jamie explained:
“Historically London was always the epicentre of video production. If you wanted to work in video, you moved to London.
While this was already changing prior to the pandemic with more universities opening up film and video courses, the rise of flexible working and the cost of living crisis meaning people are moving out of London has massively accelerated this shift.
People are applying for video jobs they thought they couldn’t do without living in London and correspondingly employers are advertising roles across the country. This has undoubtedly opened up the industry to more talent and Birmingham is leading the charge.”
We also spoke to Dr Richard Langley, Lecturer in Film at the University of Birmingham, about why Birmingham is experiencing such a rapid growth in video related jobs. He explained:
“Birmingham has a unique position in the centre of the country, with a young (oft-cited as the youngest in Europe) and diverse population. Coupled with a wide range of filming locations and ever-expanding facilities, it is inevitable that production companies look to the city and wider Midlands region to develop talent in TV and film.
In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in facilities in the city, notably in Digbeth, leading to an influx of companies and productions that means that the next few years look to be a bountiful and exciting period.”
Bristol is UK hub for video production talent, with most video job searches per population size
While our research shows that Birmingham is experiencing the fastest YoY growth for the majority of video production jobs, we also found that Bristol has become a real hub for UK video talent, demonstrating the highest volume of video related job searches in relation to population size, followed by Manchester and Newcastle.
Jamie commented:
“I’m not at all surprised to see Bristol emerging in this way – it has always been a creative hub for industries like design, music and film. It’s great to see film and video at the heart of that.”
We also spoke to Lis Anderson, vice chair of Bristol Creative Industries about why Bristol has become such a hub for video jobs. She said:
“Bristol is home to a diverse and talented pool of creative professionals, including filmmakers, animators, and producers. This is in part due to the city’s strong universities, which offer a range of courses in creative media but also some world-leading employers being based here.
Bristol is also a vibrant and creative city with a strong cultural scene where people enjoy a great work/life balance. Bristol is also a relatively affordable city to live and work in, which makes it an attractive option for creative professionals.”
The future of video production jobs
Jamie concludes:
“The main theme to emerge from our research is that while London is still attracting a lot of video talent, other areas of the UK are emerging as centres of talent.
It’s an exciting time to be working in film and video with the industry experiencing such rapid growth and it’s really encouraging to see so much appetite for such a wide variety of video related roles from across all parts of the UK.”
At Definition, we love video. If you do too, we’d love to hear from you.
* Our research looked at the following job roles:
video editor jobs, producer jobs, editor jobs, production assistant jobs, sound engineer jobs, videographer jobs, runner jobs, video producer jobs, director jobs, animator jobs, production coordinator jobs, creative producer jobs, production runner jobs, script writer jobs, assistant producer jobs, camera operator jobs, motion designer jobs, camera assistant jobs, cameraman jobs, motion graphic designer jobs, sound recordist jobs, video director jobs, video production assistant jobs, video production coordinator jobs, creative video producer jobs, assistant video producer jobs, video production assistant jobs, video production runner jobs, video runner jobs
For the following cities:
London, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield