Newcomers are competing against incredibly skilled existing stunt people. For a random selection of the type of skills stunt people have check the sites of Jeff Imada and Mark V. Lonsdale. In addition to their very high level of specialist skills, they all have years of experience and many, many credits working for film and TV. You have to ask why a production company would hire you over existing industry people like these men.

Stuntmen and women tend to pass on skills and experience to their children. Look up names like Epper and Rondell at the The Internet Movie Database to see how much of a family tradition stunt work has become. There are only a few vacancies each year - usually through retirement, injury, or death. Thus, the odds are that only one in every 1,000 or more hopefuls will succeed.

The odds are marginally better outside Los Angeles. In recent years some film/TV productions have moved from there. Many films and TV shows are being made in other countries where production costs and wages are lower, and the exchange rate also benefits the American production companies. Hercules, Xena, Jack of All Trades, Cleopatra 2525 were all made in Auckland, New Zealand. The Matrix, Star Wars, and Mission Impossible films were largely made at the new Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed in Wellington and various locations around New Zealand. There is a strong anti Canadian sentiment in Los Angeles due to the large number of TV shows and films now made up north. I see that several new movies (e.g. XXX, A Knight's Tale and Bad Company) are mostly filmed in eastern Europe.

Although the pool of available stunt people outside L.A. is smaller, it must be remembered that the total amount of work available is less, so competition for the jobs is still fierce.