Over the weekend, I was at a reunion for a summer camp I used to go to, and inevitably, there was a lot of updating of information: where people had ended up, who had kids (and grand-kids, even), who still was in touch with whom, and what work people were doing. “I’m a writer and a music teacher and a piano player” I answered more than once, and in one case, the response to THAT was a cheerful “Oh! So you’re poor!”
Not so fast, buster.
Coincidentally, I just stumbled on a National Endowment for the Arts study, which was released earlier this past summer. The NEA compiled data, starting with the 2000 census and continuing on to more recent economic data generated through 2005. They examined artists working in eleven areas: actors; announcers; architects; art directors, fine artists and animators; dancers and choreographers; designers; entertainers and performers; musicians; photographers; producers and directors; writers and authors.
Here are some interesting nuggets from the study:
- There are almost two million working artists in the United States; taken together, we make up one of the largest occupational clusters: 1.4 percent of the workforce — only slightly less than military personnel.
- We like to hang out together. More than one-fifth of all U.S. artists live in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Washington, and Boston. Half of all of us live in 30 metropolitan areas.
- We also cluster by occupation: New Mexico has the highest share of fine artists, Vermont has the highest proportion of writers, and Tennessee, the highest proportion of musicians.
- We are 3.5 times more likely to be self-employed than non-artists.
- We generally earn less money than workers with similar education levels, but we work less: One third of us work for only part of the year.
- Our median income — from all sources — in 2005 was $34,800; which is higher than the $30,100 median for the total labor force, but lower than the $43,200 median income of other professionals.
- We are twice as likely to have a college degree as other U.S. workers, and this percentage is rising.
- Writers, producers, and architects have the highest education levels among artists.
Material in this post is abstracted from the summary of the NEA report, “Artists in the Workforce.” For the summary and the executive summary (which has a whole bunch of cool charts and graphs where you can find out the musicians per 10,000 people in Tennessee, or see which states have the highest percentage of writers) go to www.nea.gov/news/news08/ArtistsinWorkforce.html. You can also download the full report, which gives comparative earnings information, among lots of other things.
Bottom line: Yeah, we might earn a bit less than people with similar levels of education who work in other professions. But look how we get to spend our time!
