The total number of jobs in the creative sector has fallen year on year, according to new figures from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Published on 14 August, DCMS’s latest sector employment estimates indicate the number of jobs supported by the industries within its remit for the year leading up to December 2024.

The figures show that after three years of successive increases, the total number of jobs in the creative sector fell slightly, from 2,419,000 to 2,409,000.

The drop in employment for the creative industries – which encompasses advertising and marketing, architecture, crafts, design and designer fashion, film, TV, radio and photography, IT, software and computer services, publishing, music, museums, galleries and libraries, and performing and visual arts – was driven by a fall in full time employment.

The number of full-time creative jobs stood at 1,713,000 in December 2024, compared with 1,744,000 in December 2023. In the same period, freelance creative roles rose from 675,000 to 696,000.

The music, performing, and visual arts sub-sector experienced a second consecutive year of growth, with the total number of jobs rising to 312,000 in 2024 from 288,000 in 2023 and 283,000 in 2022.

Meanwhile, the museums, galleries, and libraries subsector bounced back to 99,000 jobs, up from 91,000 in 2023, after a decline from 96,000 in 2022.

The drop in employment numbers in the creative sector aligns with recent trends, as shown by figures from the ONS, which indicate declining vacancy levels.

ONS reported around 15,000 job vacancies in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sectors for the period covering May to July this year, which is around half the number of job vacancies available in the sector at the start of early 2023.

Vacancies in the sector, as reported by the ONS, peaked in January to March 2022. Since then, a general downward trend can be observed.

Culture sector jobs rise

Considering the total number of jobs in the cultural sector, which overlaps with the creative sector, DCMS’s latest estimate indicates a slight increase from 666,000 in 2023 to 700,000 in 2024; however, the numbers are still below the levels reported in 2021.

Encompassing the subsectors of arts, film, TV, music, radio, photography, crafts, museums, galleries, libraries, archives, cultural education, and the operation of historical sites and similar visitor attractions, figures for the last two years show full-time employment in the culture sector rose from 336,000 to 381,000, while self-employment fell from 330,00 to 319,000.

Recently, Minister for Creative Industries and Arts Chris Bryant told the Culture, Media and Sport select committee that he hoped in the future to see fewer freelance workers in the creative industries and more people with “secure ideas” of their employment.

“If so many people are just freelancers, it doesn’t provide you with continuity, so there ends up being a bit of a skills problem. How do you make sure that people are trained and get ongoing training?” said Bryant.

“So I would like us, in the course of this… 10-year period, to get to a place where fewer people in the sector are working freelance, and more people have more secure ideas of what their employment is.”