Government figures show creative industry employment dwarfing other sectors

The Government has released figures which show employment within the creative sector of the UK is increasing at more than twice the rate of the rest of the region’s economy.

Jobs within the creative sector have gone up by 5.5% compared to an average national increase of just 2.1% from 2013-2014. It means there are now 1.8 million people working in the sector, which is a 15.8% rise since 2011.

Design, which is considered “product, graphic and fashion” has the lead on other creative industries in terms of job increases. Between 2011 and 2014 the number of jobs rose by 28.4%.

A full report issued by Department for Culture Media and Sport can be found here. It breaks down findings by geographical region, level of qualification, gender and ethnicity.

Regionally the fastest growing areas are the North West, West Midlands and South West where employment has risen by more than 20% in the last three years.

A more worrying trend is that there is still a lack of representation for women in the creative sector as a whole. Between 2011-2014 the number of men employed in the creative industries has gone up by 18.6% versus the number of women, which has gone up by 11.2%.

If you look at the design sector alone over the same period male employees increase by 35% and female by 31.8%.

The research released by the DCMS also points to exports in the UK creative sector increasing. In 2013 they were worth £17.9bn and they have increased by 3.5% (£0.6bn) between 2012-2013 and by 34.2% since 2009 (£4.6bn).

Design Council chief executive John Mathers welcomed the report but says: “A substantial amount of design’s contribution is not being accounted for when estimating the value of design. The figures released today only cover exports of services, not goods – this has led to design’s contribution to UK plc being undervalued.