Artists are losing jobs fast and furiously

The country's dire economic situation is hitting artists hard -- harder than other professionals.

According to new research announced today by the National Endowment for the Arts, working artists are unemployed at a higher rate than other workers, and at a rate that is rising more rapidly than other professions. Presumably as a result, more artists are leaving their profession.

The study, "Artists in a Year of Recession: Impact on Jobs in 2008," looks at artist employment patterns during two spikes in the current recession -– the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008.

The main findings:

-- Artists are unemployed at twice the rate of professional workers, a category in which artists are grouped because of their high levels of education. The artist unemployment rate grew to 6% in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with 3% for all professionals. A total of 129,000 artists were unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2008, an increase of 50,000 (63%) from one year earlier. The unemployment rate for artists is comparable to that for the overall workforce (6.1%).

-- Unemployment rates for artists have risen more rapidly than for U.S. workers as a whole. The unemployment rate for artists climbed 2.4 percentage points between the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008, compared to a one-point increase for professional workers as a whole, and a 1.9 point increase for the overall workforce.

-- Artist unemployment rates would be even higher if not for the large number of artists leaving the workforce. The U.S. labor force grew by 800,000 people from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008. In contrast, the artist workforce shrank by 74,000 workers. Some of this decline may be attributed to artists’ discouragement over job prospects.

Want to know more? The press release is here and the full report is here.

-- Sherry Stern

Also: "If I Ran the NEA..."

Photo:  William Miller as Oliver Twist in "The Incomplete Charles Dickens." Credit: Mike Hogan/BBC

Comments

[Donald Frazell]

The general unemployment figures are a lie. They ahve been since Reagan change how they were accumulated. They do not count anyone who has never had a job, that would include those out of college, who never worked fulltime before, and any others seeking, or giving up on, employment. Also, those who have been unemployed for more than two years are not counted, deemed unemployable by the government. The true unemployment rate overall is over 10%. always has been at least 2-3% hihger than given, probably more, and does not count those undermployed in part time jobs and those downgraded to lower incomes.

Artists have always been difficult to count. Jobs always get hundreds of applicants, have for decades as my mother knew , those of us with intelligence, workplace jobs in other fields first so knowing HOW to work, experience and viable skills get the jobs.

Anyone who goes into the arts knows, or is a fool if they dont, that you will get paid less and be harder finding a job than other fields, supply and demand. The art schools churn out far more artistes than jobs avaiable, its lifestyle thing so many go into it anyway, better than working for a living. Many suture artistses never find jobs, but then, many are living off their pops or the government dole.

Many legit artists are off and on, contract types, in film, writing, music and graphic design. Fine Arts students seldom have any marketable skills, so never get jobs and never counted, rightly so. Those in Applied arts have been able to find jobs, some anyway, and they are drying up. But the figure you give show a cushy life, far better than the general public, among those who do have skill and jobs. Artsits must upgrade their skills adn learn new ones jsut like everyone else. Doctors do coninually, and so do blue collar types as new technologies come into being.

Art types need to stop whining, and get working, for more than tehmselves, Supposedly the reason they got into it, though really always about career and lifestyle. Not Art. Art Academies are a self perpetuating machine, only interested in taking in monies from gullibale types, and building a market for their limiting works, not reaching out to all of mankind, but fractured away in isolation and arrogance. So be it. Time will change this, will true artists step up and do what must be done? Artistes dont matter, Art does. We shall see.

art collegia delenda est.

[painter who pays bills]

Mr. Frazell

You must be unemployed, you obviously have way too much time on your hands.
p.s I like Michael Heizer, and pretty much everything else that bums you out.

[Jay Andrew Allen]

Even more amusing, painter - Google "art collegia delenda est", and see exactly how busy Mr. Frazell has been.

It's pretty amusing he spelled the Pliny right, but was tripped up by challenging words such as "gullible" and "and".

[paul]

Why is it that a self employed artist that is struggling should "rightfully" not be counted? That was a very contradictory response by Mr. Frazell. I think that that sort of reactionary thinking is what alienates artists from the general public. The negative results are not simply the artists' burden. A failing economy that neglects it's cultural storytellers will suffer in the long run.

[Kingol]

On another note, mediocre talent is now being employed with experience instead of above average talent being hired with less experience and as a result creativity has come to a halt.
No one is bringing anything fresh to the table because they opt for experience so it doesn't slow the team and thus the productivity. Everything has become cookie cutter because of it - because young fresh ideas are rejected due to lack of experience.

[Donald Frazell]

This is exactly the kind of attitude that makes the "general Public" disgusted with artistes. A perfect encapsulation of why art is irrelevant now"alienates artists from the general public", because artsites are NOT of humanity anymore, they think they are special, seperate, unqiue, above the rest of humanity. And so useless, in performing their role in our culture, arts purpose. Which sadly has not been taught in art academies, probably ever.

Art is not seperate, it role is to unify, to define who WE are, to explore nature, to search for god. Not be the daycare center for spoiled children it has become. those too alienated from humanity to understand who we are, or yourselfs. Art is not self expression, therapy, games. Grow up
It is time top put aside childish things. and nothing has become more childish than fine art

art collegia delenda est