Artists Are Important to the Economy. Really

Back in our high school days, our parents were dismayed to see us leaning toward a career in the arts. Gone were the dreams of lavish vacations paid for by their child’s law firm. Instead, they resigned themselves to the fact that they could never buy a smaller home because we’d probably move back home when we fell on our faces.

Well, we’ve shown them. The New England Foundation for the Arts has released a study that says we creative types play an important role in the local economy.

The report finds that New England’s creative workers make up a large part of our area’s workforce.

Cultural enterprises and cultural workers play an important role in New England’s economy, with a greater relative endowment of cultural workers and 12.8% higher cultural enterprise employment than the U.S. as a whole.

Design is the top creative career choice regionally, followed by librarians (both sexy and not) and visual artists. Cultural organizations employ almost four percent of the New England’s workforce. But perhaps the best news for our weary parents is that jobs in creative industries are relatively stable.

As in the U.S., the unemployment rate of cultural workers in New England is almost two percentage points below the overall rate. Cultural workers also had fairly stable wages and steady, full time employment.

You can clear out our bedroom, mom. We’re gonna be just fine.