# Writers and Authors

US SOC code 27-3043. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/27-3043

Also called: Writer, Author, Content writer, Copywriter, Freelance writer.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **47,940** US writers and authors, with median pay of **$76,910** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the highest was **54,010**, in May 2022. The earliest figure here is [a Census count](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1904/dec/occupations.html) of **5,600** from 1900, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for writers and authors: ChatGPT (mass adoption, CNET scandal, BuzzFeed collapse), 2022 to 2023. The CNET scandal was the first major public disclosure that an established media brand had substituted AI for writers at scale.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects little or no change in employment from 2025 to 2035 (-0.3%). Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=27-3043&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **80.8%** of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. [Eloundou and others, 2023](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv)
- **0.038** estimated probability that the whole occupation could be computerised, over an unspecified number of years. Not a forecast of job losses. [Frey and Osborne, 2013](https://oms-www.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf)

### Since the 2013 prediction

In 2013, Frey and Osborne put this job's probability of computerisation at 0.038. BLS counted **43,590** of these jobs in May 2013 and **47,940** in May 2025. The count moved sharply in one step, May 2020 to May 2021, when BLS changed how it estimates these counts, so no change is derived here.

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend. In May 2021 BLS changed how it estimates these counts (a model-based method using three years of survey data) and moved fully to the 2018 occupation codes, so part of a change across 2021 can come from the method rather than the work.

## Writers and Authors employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1709
- Latest US employment: 47,940 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [4]
- Latest US median pay: $76,910 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [8]
- Outlook: -0.3% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [35]

### In other countries

The latest figure each country's statistics agency publishes for this job. Each uses its own occupation definition, survey basis and currency, so the numbers are not directly comparable with each other or with the US figures.

- **Canada** (NOC 51111)
  - Employment, 2020: 21,690. Source: Statistics Canada Census 2021 [7]. Statistics Canada Census of Population 2021: number of persons with employment income in NOC 51111 Authors and writers (except technical), Canada, reference year 2020. A recipients basis (anyone with employment income during the year), slightly broader than a point-in-time employed count. Statistics Canada Open Licence.
  - Median pay, 2020: C$51,200. Source: Statistics Canada Census 2021 [12]. Statistics Canada Census of Population 2021 (Table 98-10-0586): median employment income for NOC 51111 Authors and writers (except technical), Canada, reference year 2020, full-year full-time workers (the basis comparable to the US OEWS full-time median). Statistics Canada Open Licence.

### All 26 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1900 | 5,600 | n/a | Decennial Census 1900 [1] |
| 1940 | 22,000 | n/a | Decennial Census 1940 [2] |
| 1980 | 36,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., BLS Monthly Labor Review [3] |
| 2003 | 43,740 | $42,330 | BLS OEWS May 2003 [4] |
| 2004 | 42,780 | $44,350 | BLS OEWS May 2004 [4] |
| 2005 | 43,020 | $46,420 | BLS OEWS May 2005 [4] |
| 2006 | 43,260 | $48,640 | BLS OEWS May 2006 [4] |
| 2007 | 44,310 | $50,660 | BLS OEWS May 2007 [4] |
| 2008 | 44,170 | $53,070 | BLS OEWS May 2008 [4] |
| 2009 | 43,390 | $53,900 | BLS OEWS May 2009 [4] |
| 2010 | 40,980 | $55,420 | BLS OEWS May 2010 [4] |
| 2011 | 40,930 | $55,870 | BLS OEWS May 2011 [4] |
| 2012 | 41,990 | $55,940 | BLS OEWS May 2012 [4] |
| 2013 | 43,590 | $57,750 | BLS OEWS May 2013 [4] |
| 2014 | 43,500 | $58,850 | BLS OEWS May 2014 [4] |
| 2015 | 43,380 | $60,250 | BLS OEWS May 2015 [4] |
| 2016 | 44,690 | $61,240 | BLS OEWS May 2016 [4] |
| 2017 | 45,300 | $61,820 | BLS OEWS May 2017 [4] |
| 2018 | 45,210 | $62,170 | BLS OEWS May 2018 [4] |
| 2019 | 45,860 | $63,200 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [4] |
| 2020 | 44,240 | $67,120 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [4] |
| 2021 | 49,410 | $69,510 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [4] |
| 2022 | 54,010 | $73,150 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [4] |
| 2023 | 49,450 | $73,690 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [4] |
| 2024 | 47,800 | $72,270 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [4] |
| 2025 | 47,940 | $76,910 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [4] |

## Sources (99)

### Employment series

1. [US Census Bureau — 1900 Census: Occupations at the Twelfth Census (Special Report)](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1904/dec/occupations.html), US Census Bureau
2. [US Census Bureau — 1940 Decennial Census Occupational Statistics](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade/decennial-publications.1940.html), US Census Bureau
3. [BLS Monthly Labor Review — historical occupation series; secondary estimate](https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/), Bureau of Labor Statistics
4. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
5. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2006, Table 97-563-XCB2006069 (Wage and salary statistics by occupation, NOC-S 2006), income reference year 2005](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&PID=96285), Statistics Canada
6. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2016, Table 98-400-X2016356 (Occupation by employment income statistics, NOC 2016), income reference year 2015](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016356), Statistics Canada
7. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021, Table 98-10-0586 (Employment income statistics by occupation unit group, NOC 2021), income reference year 2020](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810058601), Statistics Canada

### Wage series

8. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
9. [BLS OEWS May 2024, national cross-industry estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
10. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2006, Table 97-563-XCB2006069 (Wage and salary statistics by occupation, NOC-S 2006), income reference year 2005](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&PID=96285), Statistics Canada
11. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2016, Table 98-400-X2016356 (Occupation by employment income statistics, NOC 2016), income reference year 2015](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016356), Statistics Canada
12. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021, Table 98-10-0586 (Employment income statistics by occupation unit group, NOC 2021), income reference year 2020](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810058601), Statistics Canada

### Tool eras

13. [Wikipedia — Gutenberg Bible (history of movable type printing)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible), Wikipedia
14. [Wikipedia — Statute of Anne (first copyright law)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Anne), Wikipedia
15. [Wikipedia — Sholes and Glidden typewriter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholes_and_Glidden_typewriter), Wikipedia
16. [Wikipedia — Typewriter (history section)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter), Wikipedia
17. [Wikipedia — IBM Selectric typewriter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter), Wikipedia
18. [Wikipedia — WordStar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordStar), Wikipedia
19. [Wikipedia — Microsoft Word (history section)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word), Wikipedia
20. [Wikipedia — Salon (website)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_%28website%29), Wikipedia
21. [Wikipedia — WordPress (history)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress), Wikipedia
22. [Wikipedia — Content farm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_farm), Wikipedia
23. [Digital Ethics Center — "The Rise of the Content Mill"](https://digitalethics.org/essays/rise-content-mill), Center for Digital Ethics & Policy
24. [CNBC — "How Grammarly went from nearly broke to multibillion-dollar AI company" (January 2025)](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/28/how-grammarly-went-from-nearly-broke-to-multibillion-dollar-ai-company.html), CNBC
25. [Wikipedia — Substack (history and founding)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substack), Wikipedia
26. [Wikipedia — GPT-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPT-2), Wikipedia
27. [Slate — "OpenAI says its text-generating algorithm GPT-2 is too dangerous to release" (February 2019)](https://slate.com/technology/2019/02/openai-gpt2-text-generating-algorithm-ai-dangerous.html), Slate / Technology
28. [The Write Practice — Sudowrite Review](https://thewritepractice.com/sudowrite-review/), The Write Practice
29. [Futurism — "CNET Secretly Used AI on Articles That Didn't Disclose That Fact" (January 2023)](https://futurism.com/cnet-ai-articles-label), Futurism
30. [CNN Business — "BuzzFeed News will shut down" (April 20, 2023)](https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/20/media/buzzfeed-news-shuts-down/index.html), CNN Business
31. [Futurism — "Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers" (November 2023)](https://futurism.com/sports-illustrated-ai-generated-writers), Futurism
32. [Brookings — "Hollywood writers went on strike to protect their livelihoods from generative AI"](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/hollywood-writers-went-on-strike-to-protect-their-livelihoods-from-generative-ai-their-remarkable-victory-matters-for-all-workers/), Brookings Institution
33. [Authors Guild — "The Authors Guild, John Grisham, GRRM, and 13 Other Authors File Class-Action Suit Against OpenAI" (September 2023)](https://authorsguild.org/news/ag-and-authors-file-class-action-suit-against-openai/), Authors Guild
34. [Anthropic Economic Index, January 2026 report: Arts, Design and Entertainment tasks in 11% of sampled Claude.ai conversations and 6% of first-party API transcripts](https://www.anthropic.com/research/anthropic-economic-index-january-2026-report), Anthropic

### Forecasts and exposure studies

35. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 27-3043 Writers and authors (2025: 140.3 thousand; 2035: 139.9 thousand; -0.3%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=27-3043&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
36. [Frey & Osborne (2013), "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?", Appendix (SOC 27-3043 Writers and Authors: probability 0.038, rank 123 of 702)](https://oms-www.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf), Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford
37. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 27-3043.00, human-rated β 0.808)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

38. [Wikipedia — Statute of Anne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Anne), Wikipedia
39. [Wikipedia — Copyright Act of 1790](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Act_of_1790), Wikipedia
40. [Wikipedia — Typewriter (literary use and history)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter), Wikipedia
41. [Authors Guild — About the Authors Guild (history)](https://authorsguild.org/about/), Authors Guild
42. [Authors Guild — "Survey Shows Drastic 42 Percent Decline in Authors Earnings in Last Decade" (2018)](https://authorsguild.org/news/authors-guild-survey-shows-drastic-42-percent-decline-in-authors-earnings-in-last-decade/), Authors Guild
43. [Brookings Institution — "Hollywood writers went on strike to protect their livelihoods from generative AI. Their remarkable victory matters for all workers." (2023)](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/hollywood-writers-went-on-strike-to-protect-their-livelihoods-from-generative-ai-their-remarkable-victory-matters-for-all-workers/), Brookings Institution
44. [Authors Guild — "The Authors Guild, John Grisham, GRRM, and 13 Other Authors File Class-Action Suit Against OpenAI"](https://authorsguild.org/news/ag-and-authors-file-class-action-suit-against-openai/), Authors Guild
45. [Fast Company — "Reddit, News Corp: Here are the companies OpenAI has deals with" (2024)](https://www.fastcompany.com/91130785/companies-reddit-news-corp-deals-openai-train-chatgpt-partnerships), Fast Company

### Predecessors & successors

46. [Wikipedia — History of American journalism (professionalization era)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_journalism), Wikipedia
47. [Wikipedia — Substack (the direct-to-reader successor to blogging)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substack), Wikipedia

### Present-day analysis

- [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Writers and Authors, 2024-25](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/writers-and-authors.htm), accessed 2026-05-23
- [O\*NET 30.3 — Writers and Authors (27-3043.00)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/27-3043.00), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs (Science)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Goldman Sachs — The Potentially Large Effects of AI on Economic Growth, 2023](https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/generative-ai-could-raise-global-gdp-by-7-percent.html), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025](https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2025), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Content Marketing Institute — State of Content Marketing 2025](https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/b2b-content-marketing-research/), accessed 2026-05-23
- [Writer.com — Detecting and Destroying AI-isms in Marketing Copy](https://writer.com/blog/detect-destroy-ai-isms-marketing-copy/), accessed 2026-06-21
- [Jasper AI — Copywriting Use Cases](https://www.jasper.ai/use-cases/copywriting), accessed 2026-06-21
- [Copy.ai — GTM AI Platform for Marketing Workflow Automation](https://www.copy.ai/), accessed 2026-06-21

How to read these figures: https://futurehistory.earth/methodology. Every figure links to its own source; gaps stay gaps.