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  • 📉 The blue-collar workforce in Hollywood is disappearing

📉 The blue-collar workforce in Hollywood is disappearing

PLUS: Nelson Peltz just walked away with $1 billion despite losing the Disney proxy battle.; Meta banned from collecting voting data in Spain

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Steven Van & Jacob Goldschein
May 31, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

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TOP STORY
📉 The blue-collar workforce in Hollywood is disappearing

📸 Getty Images

In Hollywood, "white-collar" jobs are becoming much more popular than manual "blue-collar" jobs.

Here's a breakdown of the most popular roles:

Creatives:

  • 2013: 44% of all entertainment workers

  • 2022: 49% of all entertainment workers

Management:

  • 2013: 14% of all entertainment workers

  • 2022: 17% of all entertainment workers

While the numbers may not seem crazy, the fact that two roles accounted for well over half of an industry’s jobs is staggering. 

For those bad at math, Creatives and Management accounted for a whopping 59% of total jobs in 2013 and 66% in 2022.

And those aren’t the only “white-collar” jobs; casting directors, post-production specialists, and PR people also make up the “specialists” category.

Specialists:

  • 2013: 10% of all jobs

  • 2022: 13% of all jobs

Now, that would bring the grand total of white-collar jobs to 70% of total jobs in 2013 and 80% of total jobs in 2022.

Is there hope that this can change? 

Well, considering that a simple prompt into ChatGPT will soon be able to take care of laboring tasks like set design, lighting, and special effects, this trend favoring white-collar jobs will probably skew even further.

Technology isn’t exactly remorseful for the jobs it takes from humans.

ENTERTAINMENT
💰️ Nelson Peltz walks away with $1 billion despite losing the Disney proxy battle

📸 Financial Times

Remember around a month ago when Disney was going through a proxy battle?

You know, the one that threatened to shake up the entire board and even potentially remove longtime CEO Bob Iger?

Well, in case you have, here’s a harmless refresher:

2023

  • Jan. 12: Trian Partners file to nominate Nelson Peltz as a director of Disney’s board.

  • Jan. 17: Disney claims Peltz lacks the skills and experience to assist the board.

  • Feb. 09: Peltz ends his bid for a board seat after Disney announces a restructuring plan.

  • Mar. 29: Disney lays off Isaac Perlmutter as part of the restructuring.

  • Oct. 30: Perlmutter gives Trian complete voting power over his Disney shares.

  • Nov. 30: Peltz begins his second public bid for Disney board seats.

2024

Phew, done.

💬 Trian Partners reportedly spent about $25 million, while Disney spent about $40 million to fund their campaigns. 

But why bring this up again now?

Well, because earlier this week, Nelson Peltz, the guy who started the whole thing, just sold his personal stake in Disney for around $120 a share, netting himself $1 billion.

Yes, the guy who lost the proxy battle—in quite a public fashion, I may add—still got to walk away with a billion bucks.

Now I finally understand why everyone’s “looking for a man in finance.”

We should all aspire to lose as well as this guy.

💬 As of March 31, Trian Partners still owns over 32 million shares of Disney, worth well over $3 billion.

POLITICS
🗳️ Meta banned from collecting voting data on Facebook and Instagram in Spain

📸 Pixabay

Oh god, what did Zuck do now? Well, hold on, let’s back it up.

The European Parliament elections, held every 5 years, are scheduled to take place from June 6 to June 9.

And while most Americans have no idea what it is, the election concerns every single country in the European Union.

The election essentially determines the European version of Congress, which is why governments and politicians are worried about interference.

📸 Shutterstock

Enter Meta: Before this week, Meta planned to add election features to Facebook and Instagram in Spain:

Features that would:

  • Collect names, IP addresses, age, gender, and interactions.

  • Create detailed profiles from collected data.

  • Potentially share data with third parties.

  • Send information to individuals encouraging them to vote.

  • Send election-related messages based on user data.

Meta clearly wants to help voters, no? Well, maybe, but more likely, they probably just want to collect more invaluable data, which the Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD) doesn’t want.

The AEPD is worried Meta’s features would violate data processing laws, especially because sensitive personal data, like political views, need explicit consent before being collected.

💬 Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), explicit consent is required to collect and process sensitive personal data, like political views.

This means organizations (e.g. Meta) must get clear permission from individuals before collecting or using this type of information.

Meta reluctantly agreed to the AEPD's order for up to three months despite disagreeing with their view.

And before you ask, Spain isn’t the only country that has done this.

Italy’s data authority took similar actions against Meta in 2022, which is why Meta intended to launch these features across the entire EU, except in Italy.

Maybe the US should look at something like this.

Oh, who are we kidding?

There’s no threat to our democracy's elections, right?

📈 Meta ($META) is up 45.95% this year.

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