Artists and writers: a daunting profile

[This post has been updated]A profile of Canadian artists -- a category that includes writers, illustrators and photographers for Canadian magazines -- has been published by Hill Strategies Research Inc., drilling down into the latest census data . The report shows:

• there are 140,000 artists* in Canada who spent more time at their art than at any other occupation in May 2006;
  
• The number of artists is slightly larger than the number of Canadians directly employed in the automotive industry (135,000);
• the broader cultural sector has about 609,000 workers and comprises 3.3% of the overall labour force in Canada;
• One in every 30 people in Canada has a cultural occupation. This is about double the level of employment in the forestry sector in Canada (300,000) and more than double the level of employment in Canadian banks (257,000);
• Most artists earn less than $10,000 a year.
• The average earnings of artists are $22,700, compared with an average of $36,300 for all Canadian workers. The gap between artists’ average earnings and overall labour force earnings is 37%.
• To bridge that gap would require an additional $1.9 billion in earnings for artists.
  

The report, commissioned by the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage and the Ontario Arts Council, reveals what it says are 10 key facts that should be understood about the working lives of artists in Canada.

1. The average earnings are very low.
2. A typical artist earns less than half the typical earnings of all Canadian workers.
3. Artists’ earnings decreased, even before the current recession.
4. There are more female than male artists, yet women artists earn much less than men.
5. Aboriginal and visible minority artists have particularly low earnings.
6. Economic returns to higher education are much lower for artists than for other workers.
7. Many artists are self-employed.
8. There are relatively few opportunities for full-time work in the arts.
9. There has been substantial growth in the number of artists since 1971, but the rate of growth is decreasing.
10. Artists, as a group, are becoming more diverse, older and better educated.

*The definition: actors, authors, choreographers, craftspeople, composers, conductors, dancers, directors, musicians, producers, singers and visual artists.

[UPDATE: a reader notes that the data may not include magazine photographers or writers, although perhaps illustrators. Citing the full report:

page two:
Other occupation groups, such as photographers, were also considered for inclusion in the analysis.
However, further investigation found that a large majority of photographers captured by the census work as commercial photographers, which would limit the usefulness of including photographers in the analysis.

page three:
Another example of an occupation group that is not a perfect fit for artists is the authors and writers category. This occupation group includes a broader range of writers than simply novelists, poets and other “artistic” writers. As can be seen in the occupation definition, a fairly broad range of writers (but not journalists) are included in this category: “Authors and writers plan, research and write books, scripts, storyboards, plays, essays, speeches, manuals, specifications and other non‐journalistic articles for publication or presentation. They are employed by advertising agencies, governments, large corporations, private consulting firms, publishing firms, multimedia/new‐media companies and other establishments, or they may be self‐employed.”

(This, of course, revives old controversies of fiction trumping non-fiction, painting trumping illustration, "art" photography trumping "commercial" photography.)

A Statistical Profile of Artists in Canada.pdf
Executive Summary (4 pages).pdf