Guidance

The Creativity Job Market is Expanding

In Ontario alone, the creative industries or “Creative Cluster” (a term coined by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport), which includes core film and entertainment categories as well as wider creative industries such as advertising and graphic design, contribute over $12 billion to the provincial economy per year. That’s more than the province’s energy industry and it surpasses the agriculture, mining and forestry sectors combined. Also in Ontario, interactive digital media jobs are expected to grow 44 percent over a two-year period. 

In British Columbia, creative industries generate more than $4 billion for that province’s GDP. The Conference Board of Canada estimates that the combined direct and indirect effects from the national culture sector contribute nearly $85 billion to the Canadian economy annually.

This “creative economy” is still growing. According to Statistics Canada, operating revenues have seen by businesses in specialized design services (comprising mainly graphic design, industrial design and interior design) increased 3.6 percent to $2.9 billion in 2012 over 2011, and graphic design accounted for nearly half of those revenues. Operating revenues for advertising and related services increased 2.9 percent to $7.1 billion over the same period. 

The arts and culture industries contribute to $54.6 billion annually to Canada's GDP, or 3 percent. On top of this, Canada's creative industries are growing faster than the rest of the economy. Canada is also home to more than 470 game studios that have increased their GDP contribution by 31 percent since 2013. The workforce for the creative economy has 2.2 million workers, that's 12.9 percent of the total workforce (more than in the US and the UK!) 

 

Sources:

Applied Arts February/March 2015, vol. 30 no. 1 issue 153

Ministry of Canadian Heritage: Creative Canada Policy Framework

Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport: Ontario’s Entertainment and Creative Cluster

Interactive Ontario: Measuring Success: The Impact of the Digital Media Sector

Hill Strategies: Creative Economy Employment in the US, Canada and the UK

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