QUICK TAKES - March 5, 2009
- Share via
The country’s dire economic situation is hitting artists hard.
According to new research released Wednesday 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 NEA said that 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.
-- Sherry Stern
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
