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N.C.'s creative jobs outnumber finance
In sheer numbers, it's arts over banking. The pay isn't as nice, but the dress code is looser.
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Published: November 25, 2009
Updated: 11/25/2009 10:58 am
CHARLOTTE - The financial industry gets a lot of respect as a source of N.C. jobs. So try this on for size: The arts, humanities and design fields employ as many people as banks do.
That's one of the discoveries in a study released Tuesday by the N.C. departments of Cultural Resources and Commerce. Using census information, state employment data and other information, researchers have counted jobs and dollars to prove the arts' importance to the economy.
"We all know that arts and culture feed the soul. But they also feed families across the state," said Linda Carlisle, N.C. secretary of cultural resources.
The financial industry directly supplies 153,075 jobs, state figures show. The number of creative-industry jobs identified by the study: 164,325.
The salaries of creative jobs don't rival those in banking. But as a measure of the creative industry's value to the economy, the study says the industry generates $41billion worth of goods and services -- nearly 6 percent of the state's total production.
Carlisle and Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco released the report Tuesday at the McColl Center for Visual Art in uptown Charlotte.
The McColl Center's executive director said the proof of the creative industry's scope -- and especially the similarity to the number of financial jobs -- was "staggering."
"Sometimes we (in arts organizations) struggle to be taken seriously as a vital economic infusion" to the state, Suzanne Fetscher said. The study "demonstrates the strength we have."
Growing creativity
The study defines the creative industry broadly. It includes nonprofits such as museums, performing groups and historical sites; artists who work independently; and for-profit businesses that depend on creative work, such as film production companies, movie theaters, architectural firms, graphic-design companies and publishers.
The study expands on a 2007 report. That one counted jobs within narrower boundaries. It took in less information on compensation, and it didn't look at the value of goods produced.
This time, "we wanted to show the contribution of the industry rather than just, 'The industry is there,'" said Ardath Weaver, the cultural resources department's research director.
The study is based in part on employment information from July 2008. Since then, the recession has taken a toll on all segments of the economy. So some of the jobs counted in the report, Carlisle said, must have been eliminated.
Nevertheless, she said, "nothing changes" about the core message on the creative industry's contributions. "We need to acknowledge that and build on it," Carlisle said.
Toward that end, she said, the report will help make the case to the General Assembly for maintaining support of the arts despite tough economic times. Beyond that, Carlisle and her staff will take the findings to business leaders, educators, and philanthropic groups across the state to explore "what can we do to help grow this creative economy?"
The possibilities, she said, include using "attractive tax rates" to aid in creating cultural districts; helping cultural groups turn old buildings into new homes; and encouraging the sale of handcrafted goods through sales-tax breaks.
Impact in Charlotte
The study doesn't break its findings down by regions, but a few glimpses of Charlotte cultural groups show what they bring the economy:
The touring company that recently performed "South Pacific" for a week at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center occupied 45 uptown hotel rooms for seven nights, the center's staff said. The performances provided work for 22 local musicians in the orchestra and 30 local crew members backstage.
About 20 percent of the people who attended Opera Carolina's performances last season traveled from 45 minutes to three hours to get here, general director James Meena said. Season-ticket holders came from as far St. Simons Island, Ga., western Virginia and eastern Tennessee.
The audiences for "Beauty and the Beast" at Children's Theatre of Charlotte included people from 28 states, the District of Columbia, Ontario, Canada, 36 N.C. counties and 8 S.C. counties.
"I think that drives home the point of tourism and economic impact," Children's Theatre executive director Bruce LaRowe said.
Cultural groups and their backers have long felt they add to the economic life of their hometowns and the state, LaRowe said.
"Besides art for art's sake," LaRowe said, "it's art for jobs -- art for business development."
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