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The Australian arts sector can be a tough nut to crack when it comes to securing well-paid permanent arts jobs.
In fact, recent research shows that if you are a creative professional seeking arts jobs and work in an artistic role, the reality is that only about half your income will come from your creative or artistic work, while the rest of your earnings will come from work you do outside of the arts, or from other non-creative roles you perform in the arts.
This suggests that if you are looking for secure, ongoing arts work, the most likely place to find it is in the so-called “non-creative roles” that exist within the arts sector – in areas such as arts management, administration, budgeting and marketing.
ArtsHub’s jobs site data collected over the financial year 2024 largely confirms this picture, showing roles in administration, coordination and community engagement were being recruited in large numbers.
Read on for more key insights on what arts jobs were most in-demand over the last twelve months.
Most viewed jobs
Most significantly, the top 25% of viewed arts jobs on ArtsHub shows the highest interest in:
- Arts Programming Jobs
- Administration Jobs
- Coordination Jobs.
Both these Arts Programming, and Administration and Coordination job categories showed up in almost a quarter of the top ArtsHub job ads viewed. This was followed closely by jobs in:
- Community Engagement jobs,
- Curatorial and Exhibitions jobs,
- Project Management jobs.
Interestingly, in terms of the timing of job ads, the highest number of top performing ArtsHub job ads fell within the month of April 2024 with the start of the calendar year also proving popular. However, the year held fairly steady in terms of job ad views – indicating there is not one particular time of year when arts workers are more interested (or not interested) in viewing jobs. That said, there is usually a decline in recruitment activity in the lead-up to the Christmas holidays.
Least viewed jobs
Roles that weren’t as popular among job seekers over the last financial year, which were viewed in only moderate numbers, were in the areas of
- Funding and Finance,
- Ticketing,
- Business Development and
- Human Resources.
Most advertised jobs
The picture on the supply side shows some distinct similarities to where the demand from job-hunters is, but there are also some small discrepancies in what arts employers are advertising and what job-seekers are interested in.
First, in one of the clearest alignments between employer need and job-seeker demand over the past year, Administration and Coordination jobs were the most frequently advertised job category on ArtsHub’s jobs site, appearing in 18% of job ads.
Most in-demand jobs
On the job seekers side, this Administration and Coordination classification was also one of the most popular job types searched for – it was second only to the Arts Programming category in terms of being most viewed.
However, when it comes to Management jobs, employers were advertising for these roles at quite a high rate (it was the second most common category of job advertised last financial year), yet ArtsHub job-seekers were not clicking on these ads quite as frequently as they were being advertised – the Management category was the 11th most clicked-on by job seekers.
Read: On the move: latest arts sector appointments
Arts Programming jobs were also frequently advertised. These roles accounted for around 15% of all job ads posted on ArtsHub, and, as previously noted, these job ads were viewed in high numbers by job-seekers last year.
Marketing and Communications roles were also posted frequently by employers. They accounted for around 12% of all job ads in 2023-24, but while these roles were clearly in demand on the employer side, job seekers were not drawn to them at quite the same rate, as they were only the eighth most clicked on job ads.
Average arts salaries
On the subject of average wages and salaries for advertised arts jobs on ArtsHub over the past year, the news is fairly encouraging.
While Creative Australia’s ‘Artists as Workers‘ report (published in April 2024) puts the average earnings of creatives in this country at just $54,000 per year, the most common salary bracket advertised on ArtsHub over the financial year 2024 was in the range of $70,000 to $90,000, with 25% of all job ads disclosing salary offering between these parameters. In fact only 6.6% of all advertised jobs which disclosed salary fell below the $50,000 per annum mark (or were advertised as an hourly wage).
Breakdown of arts salaries 2024
- $70,000 to $90,000 – 25%
- $90,000 to $100,000 – 16%
- $100,000 to $130,000 – 14%
- $50,000 to $70,000 – 11%
- Wage* – 3.8%
- >$130,000 – 3%
- $40,000 to $50,000 – 1.7%
- <$40,000 – 1.1%
*wage advertised jobs accounted for 3.8% and is often used to denote an hourly rate when advertising casual roles.
Not all employers who advertised jobs on ArtsHub chose to post a salary range with their ads – around 75% of employers did, while 25% did not.
The $130,000 or above bracket accounted for 3% of jobs ads (yes, you can be a high income earner in the arts!), while the least advertised salaries (1.1%) were in the less than $40,000 salary bracket.
Average job type
In terms of the most advertised job type the majority of positions were:
- Full-time or part-time roles – 64%
- Part-time – 18.5%
- Contract – 10.5%
- Casual – 5.5%
Contract and casual positions are both relatively low proportions, bucking the often-quoted idea that many jobs in the arts are short-term and insecure (though we know both those things are true in some specific areas of the sector).
Read: 6 questions you should be ready to answer to smash that job interview
Recommendations for recruiters
And finally, in a big tip for employers and recruiters, it’s clear that our job seekers are most attracted to ads that contain transparent salary information. A total of 78% of the most viewed ArtsHub job ads in 2023-24 had a salary listing with the ad.
Also, the most viewed job ads last year were in those in the $70,000 to $90,000 range (but this is likely because such a large proportion of all job ads posted in 2023-24 were in that same salary range). The second and third most popular salary ranges was for jobs in the $90,000 to $130,000 brackets – indicating a thirst for well-paying jobs in our sector (surprise, surprise!).
ArtsHub‘s data also suggests that job ads that fared well over the past year were those that were advertised for longer than 14 days and had more than one classification selected (64% of the top performing ads), which works to help job seekers find an ad within multiple search options.
