Arts Contributed $1 Trillion to US Financial system in 2021
The humanities and cultural trade, which made up 4.4 % of the US economic system in 2021, accounted for a report $1 trillion of the nation’s gross home product (GDP) that yr. In line with a research performed collectively by the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Bureau of Financial Evaluation (BEA), the sector rebounded from the worldwide Covid-19 disaster comparatively shortly, increasing by 13.7 % between 2020 and 2021, whereas the broader economic system gained simply 5.9 % throughout the identical interval. Of notice, the humanities and leisure sector was amongst these hardest hit by the pandemic.
Of the thirty-five subsectors included below the arts-and-culture umbrella, ten of them—together with these comprising performers, performing arts organizations, impartial artists, and writers—noticed vital development, whereas nonetheless failing to return to pre-pandemic incomes energy. Streaming and net publishing, the one arts subsector to see an incredible improve throughout 2020, gained by 27.3 % in 2021, exceeding pre-pandemic ranges. The companies that make up the subsector, together with music and movie archives, are sometimes for revenue, in contrast with 82 % of the tradition trade, which is nonprofit or not for revenue. Arts-related building, resembling constructing and restoration of museums and different cultural services, and philanthropic providers, which incorporates grantmaking and giving, tumbled for the second straight yr in 2021.
Jobs within the arts crept again, with 4.9 million employed within the sector in 2021, a rise of three % over 2020’s 4.6 million, however shy of the 5.2 million working within the area in 2019. The report’s authors famous that these numbers don’t embrace freelancers or those that are self-employed. In 2019, such employees accounted for about 33 % of the humanities trade.
“This annual report from the NEA and BEA underscores that arts and tradition are a vital a part of the American economic system. It’s equally obvious, nonetheless, that the sector nonetheless faces large hardships because of Covid-19,” stated NEA chair Maria Rosario Jackson. “As a result of the information replicate the financial exercise of nonprofit and for-profit organizations alike, it’s vital to acknowledge the distinctive contributions each make in guaranteeing a vibrant and expansive arts and cultural sector.”