Employment in the creative industries is growing at four times the rate of the wider UK workforce, according to the latest official statistics from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The creative industries now employ almost two million people, up five per cent on the previous year, compared to the wider UK workforce which grew by 1.2 per cent.
The DCMS also said the number of people from BAME backgrounds in the creative industries has increased by 15 per cent since 2015, an improvement more than 2 and half times that of the wider UK workforce. The DCMS said that in the film and TV sectors alone, BAME representation has jumped by 40 per cent.
Creative Industries Minister Matt Hancock said: “This strong, sustained growth of the creative industries is fantastic to see, and we are working with industry to make sure this continues.
“And whilst there’s still more to do before diversity in the creative industries mirrors that of our society as a whole, I’m encouraged to see that this area is improving at more than twice the rate of the wider workplace.”
The latest figures also show that in 2015 DCMS sectors exported £38.2 billion worth of services to the rest of the world – up 1.4 per cent from the year before and a 42.4 per cent rise on 2010. Exports of services from DCMS sectors in 2015 accounted for 16.9 per cent of total UK service exports.
Staff Reporter
Share this story
