Music, performing and visual arts lost 80,000 jobs in pandemic – new data

Music, performing and visual arts has been the creative sector hardest hit by the pandemic – losing 80,000 jobs and an estimated £4 billion in gross value added for the UK economy, according to new data.

Before the pandemic, music, performing and visual arts contributed £10.6 billion in GVA and employed 314,000 people.

However, new data from Oxford Economics, published in a report by the Creative UK Group, estimates that these sectors have lost 39% of GVA, equating to a loss of £4 billion to the UK economy.

According to the report, music, performing and visual arts have also lost 26% of jobs – 80,000 – due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The creative industries as a whole – made up of nine sub-sectors also including film, tv, video, radio and photography; design; architecture; and museums, galleries and libraries – are estimated to have lost nearly £12 billion in GVA, with job losses expected to reach more than 110,000 by the end of the year.

A 20% increase in investment on 2019 levels in the creative industries from the government could generate more than 300,000 new jobs in the creative industries, which is enough to employ the working-age populations of Hartlepool and Middlesbrough twice over, according to the data.

The report argues that the sector has the potential to recover faster than the UK economy as a whole, growing by more than 26% by 2025 and contributing £132.1 billion to the economy in GVA – £28 billion more than in 2020 and more than the financial services, insurance and pension industries combined.

However, the research warns that the government must act immediately to support the creative industries to “avoid deep divisions, with key parts of the UK at risk of being left behind”.

Creative UK Group chief executive Caroline Norbury said: “The past decade has seen the creative industries achieve remarkable growth and success with the sector’s vast power to grow wealth and employment extending throughout local communities across the whole of the UK.

“With ambitious investment, the creative sector can rebuild faster than the UK economy and make a major contribution to the country’s post-pandemic recovery.

“We are money makers, job creators, innovators and problem solvers. We can reshape this country’s future for the better, but to realise our ambitions for tomorrow, we must invest in creativity today.”

Norbury added: “We are not asking for handouts. We are asking for meaningful, targeted investment in creative ideas, creative industries and creative skills, that can unlock the incredible potential of the creative sector to kick-start our country’s recovery, and that will be repaid many times over.

“It is critical that we seize this opportunity to unlock the UK’s incredible creative potential, and avoid leaving key parts of our sector – and our country – behind.”

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