This report measures employment in the creative economies of the US, Canada and the UK.

Key Findings

• The US has the largest creative economy employment of the US, UK and Canada employing 14.2 million people.

• Canada had the largest creative economy employment as a percentage of the workforce at 12.9 per cent.

• Employment in the UK creative economy grew at 4.7 per cent per annum on average between 2011 and 2013, faster than the US between (3.1 per cent). A comparison with Canadian growth over this period was not possible with the data available.

• The largest centre of creative economy employment in the US in absolute terms is the New York-Newark-New Jersey Metro area employing 1.2 million people (12.7 per cent of the workforce) in 2013.

• The creative economy employment of this area in absolute and percentage terms is comparable to that of the Greater South East of England (London, the South East and Eastern regions). This employs 1.3 million people in the creative economy, 12.3 per cent of the workforce.

This report provides consistent statistics on the US and Canadian creative economies in comparison to the UK. Creative economy employment being employment in creative industries and in creative occupations outside of these. Employment figures for creative industry groups are also provided.

The report also analyses creative economy employment at a sub-national level for the US and UK, and the national level growth rates for these two countries between 2011 and 2013.

The report applies the official UK creative industry classification to produce a best possible fit creative industries definition in the US and Canadian data. The report is based on analysing the US American Community Survey, the Canadian Household survey and the UK Annual Population Survey.

 A companion report that examines the creative industries employment in the 28 member states of the EU was published in December 2015. 

Policy Recommendations

The Dynamic Mapping methodology provides a basis for making international assessments of the creative industries.

Research and policy making on industrial and employment issues would benefit from the addition of more detailed and internationally consistent industry coding to key datasets.

Authors

Max Nathan , Tom Kemeny, Andy Pratt and  Greg Spencer.