The Arts sector in the European Union includes 2.5% of the working population

Wednesday, June 02 2004 @ 10:48 PM EDT

Madrid, Spain - The General Society of Authors and Composers (SGAE) informed today that activities related with the Arts (known as Culture in Europe) represent 2.5% of the jobs in the European Union, according to a report developed by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat). A total of 4.2 million people in the European Union are dedicated to professional activities related with the Cultural industry. These positions are held by professionals with a higher academic level than the national average -about 40% are college graduates- although job insecurity is higher than in other professions.

Temporary or self employed workers and part time contracts are the general norm in this sector, according to the diagnosis of Eurostat, after having analyzed the arts sector in European Union countries, as well as Iceland, Norway, Bulgaria and Switzerland. Portugal has the highest rate of temp work (35%) versus Luxembourg’s 1%. Concerning part-time contracts, a very frequent practice in the sector, Holland leads the classification with 56% of part-time workers. In the case from Denmark, 20% of the employees in involved in Cultural tasks supplement this activity with a second job.

The abundance of self-employed workers is also another of the characteristics of employment in the European Cultural sector. In general, the number of self-employed workers dedicated to the Arts surpasses that of the average of the active population (29% versus 14%). Italy, with 47% of self-employment, or Austria, with 39%, are the clearest examples of the high percentage of this type of workers in the sector.

The Spanish case

Spain is located below the European average in the number of workers in the cultural sector (2% versus 2.5% in the European Union). However, the number of people with university degrees in the sector is one of the highest in Europe (51%). In the Spanish Cultural field, part time work is very common (34%), although similar to that of the rest of the professions (30%). In general, in Spain there are fewer cultural workers with a second job (6%), although this fact is significant if we keep in mind that only 2% of the active population in Spain has two jobs.

6% of the Spanish GNP

In terms of GNP (Gross National Product), the cultural sector in Spain represents approximately 6%, according to estimates of Economic Theory professor José Ramón Lasuén, one of the most respected specialists in professional and academic circles in the country. In the advanced economies, the influence of the arts sector is fundamental for the creation of added value and its contribution to the Interior Products. In the United States, the Culture and Leisure industry represented 7.33 % of their GNP in 1999, with a very notable growth from the 5.4% registered during the year 1987. About 4.2% of Americans work in this sector.

In the case of the United Kingdom, the percentage of participation in the GNP was 4% in 1995, with an employment a participation in this sector of 5%. In Australia, the 1999 data is 3.3% of the GNP and 3.8% of the total salaried population. In Finland (1997), the percentage of the GNP increased to 4,1%, and Norway had 3.8% (with data from 1999). The cultural sector reached 5.5% of the GNP in The Netherlands (1998), with 5.5% of the total active population. These indicators are very irregular in reference to Latin America, with a specific weight of the GNP that oscillates between 0.7% in Ecuador and 4.01% and 4.03% in Venezuela and Colombia, respectively.

In this context, the data that corresponds Spain for 1997 (4,5%), with some projections of  6% for 2002, corroborates that Spain has a privileged position in the development of what, without any doubt, is a strategic sector for the national economy. According to the forecasts of professor Lasuén, with new approaches to define and quantify the cultural sector (including education, cultural tourism and technological innovation), this could represent, within a few years, up to 15% of the Spanish GNP and of other developed countries.

World Music Central
http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20040602194850885