Study: Role of culture occupations in the economy

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Culture workers and their knowledge, skills and creativity are relevant for producing goods and services outside the culture sector, according to a new study on the role of culture occupations in the economy.

The study, "Creative input: The role of culture occupations in the economy during the 1990s," which used employment data from the 1991, 1996 and 2001 censuses, examined the extent to which employers in non-culture industries, such as manufacturing, relied on culture workers and their skills as inputs into productive processes during the 1990s.

It found that almost half of all culture workers were employed in non-culture industries, particularly in four sectors: manufacturing, business services, educational services and retail trade.

The study focused on core culture workers; that is, those in core creative and artistic production occupations as defined by the Canadian Framework for Culture Statistics. The core culture occupations are those directly involved in producing creative work. Examples of core culture occupations include writers, architects, designers of various kinds, actors, musicians and archivists.

Examples of core culture workers contributing to the non-culture sector would include an architect designing a commercial building for a client or a graphic artist creating a logo for a marketing campaign.

It is not surprising that many core culture workers are employed in typical culture industries, such as printing and publishing, broadcasting and theatre. Yet, what is striking is the number employed in industries that are not usually thought of as cultural in nature.

In 2001, there were about 260,000 core culture workers in Canada, roughly 104,000 of whom were employed in non-culture industries.

The study found that a significant number of core culture workers, 19,030 in 2001, were employed in manufacturing; another 25,340 were employed in business service firms. This suggests that forms of creativity other than purely scientific and technical expertise were also relevant for producing goods and services.

Moreover, core culture employment in manufacturing increased by 55%, a rate far higher than overall employment growth in manufacturing during the 1990s. For business services, core culture employment almost doubled over the decade, an increase that was also larger than overall employment growth in business services.

This suggests that producing manufactured goods and business services relied to a greater degree on creative design work at the end of the decade than at the beginning.

Yet, over the entire non-culture sector of the economy, the percentage of the total workforce employed in core culture occupations remained stable. Core culture employment represented only about 0.8% of the non-culture workforce in 2001, up slightly from 0.7% in 1991.

Hence, manufacturing and business services were noteworthy in the extent to which core culture worker employment increased; the increases seen in both do not reflect a general pattern for the entire non-culture sector.

Other industries, such as retail trade, experienced a decline in the number of core culture workers.

In the retail trade industries, the number of culture workers fell from 14,500 to 10,100 over the decade. Core culture workers represented 0.9% of the workforce in retail industries in 1991, but just 0.6% in 2001.

The study also examined where core culture workers tend to be employed. Firms located in large cities hired culture workers to a much greater extent than those located in small cities and rural areas.

Hence, culture-based skills, knowledge and creativity were most likely to be used for producing non-culture goods and services in Canada's largest cities.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3901.

The research paper, "Creative input: The role of culture occupations in the economy during the 1990s", as part of the Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics: Research Papers (81-595-MIE2008064, free), is now available from the Publications module of our website.

For general information, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-800-307-3382; 613-951-5418; fax: 613-951-1333; culture@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Michael Schimpf (613-951-9832) or Erika Dugas (613-951-1568), Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.