You’re working or studying in the arts and you’re wondering maybe if it’s such a good idea. It is. Not for everybody naturally, but Australians working in the creative and cultural economy are working in a sector that is growing faster than average, with some areas recruiting at three times the rate of the rest of the workforce.
How do we know? Because Queensland University of Technology researchers Stuart Cunningham and Peter Higgs have done a bit of drilling. They took figures from the 2011 census and extracted the bits that affect the creative sectors to find where the arts action is. The growth is most substantial in creative services. Once a subsector in the creative industries, these are often sole traders or small businesses that supply other businesses with their creative work. On the other hand, the traditional business to consumer practices like booksellers or news publishers grew at only half the rate of the wider economy. No surprises there, but the evidence confirms it.
