Buoyant creative sector grows faster than economy as whole

Monday, 20 November 2023

The country’s creative sectors are pumping more money into the economy year on year. Pictured, Zoe Moon performs at the 2023 World of WearableArt show at Wellington’s TSB Arena.

Artists are often said to work off the smell of an oily rag.

This may be true. But in spite of that, the creative sectors’ contribution to the country’s GDP is growing at almost double the rate of the economy as a whole.

New data released this week by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage shows that in the year to March 2022, the arts and creative sectors’ GDP contribution was $14.9 billion, a 10% increase on the previous year’s figure of $13.56b.

The 10% was nearly twice the rate that the economy as a whole was growing at 5.3%.

The figures help illustrate the arts’ remarkable recovery after significant job losses were forecast over the Covid-19 pandemic.

They also give credence to the soaring number of people applying for arts funding and therefore seeking to create art; and the unprecedented groundswell of audience support that arts organisations have been experiencing.

The Royal NZ Ballet’s Platinum production, performed at Wellington’s St James Theatre in October.

In fact, since 2019 and the start of the pandemic, thousands of new jobs have been created in the arts and creative sectors.

In the year to March 2022, more than 115,000 people had their main job in the arts and creative sectors - a 3.8% increase on the previous year. That includes more than 10,000 Māori.

But Māori, Pacific peoples and Asian New Zealanders were still under-represented in the arts and creative sector workforces. Pākehā, conversely, were significantly over-represented.

The 115,114 workers held 31,384 different jobs.

The most common job in the sectors was graphic designer. Architect, advertising and public relations manager, librarian, and private tuition music teacher rounded out the top five.

NZ Symphony Orchestra violinists. The orchestra has been doing more to engage with different audiences, including putting on relaxed concerts designed for audiences who find traditional concert environments intimidating.

Between 2023 and 2028, it’s expected that more than 9200 new jobs in the sectors will be created.

About one third of the sectors’ workers are self-employed - twice the rate of workers in the overall economy.

The percentage of self-employed workers is even higher - 42% - if the arts is looked at without the broader creative sector and those employed in areas like heritage and media being lumped in with it.

Average annual earnings were also significantly lower for those working in the arts, versus those in the overall creative workers profile.

And there are almost 36,000 creative and arts businesses in New Zealand.

Despite Wellington again taking the mantle for the country’s most creative city this year, the majority of the country’s arts and creative sector workers live in Auckland, at 44%.

The capital followed, holding 15% of creative workers.

Wellington still had a higher proportion of creative workers than Auckland when the cities’ working populations were looked at as a whole, which helps explain the creative city title.