The impact of almost a full year of pandemic on the cultural sector is now statistically legible and visible. The Canadian Association of Arts Organizations (CAPACOA) published last Friday his monthly data reading from Statistics Canada, which now allows a full turn of the calendar. “All things considered, the arts, entertainment and recreation sector lost more jobs than any other sector in 2020”, we can read in the post launched on the organization’s website, with a drop of 25 , 4%.
114,400 jobs were lost. “Because this publication compiles twelve months of data, we are able to publish data at a more granular level with a high degree of confidence,” Duty the director, research and development of CAPACOA, Frédéric Julien. The only other sector that experienced a loss of a similar magnitude was accommodation and food services, with -22.6%. These two sectors “are really in a class of their own for the scale of the losses suffered,” comments Mr. Julien.
The total number of hours worked, a very important indicator, decreased by 36.6% in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector in 2020. More specifically, in this sector, performing arts companies have experienced the most dramatic drop in the number of hours worked last year, with –60.7%. The reality of independent artists is counted in another category: they saw their total number of hours worked fall by 22.8%.
Epiphenomenon, the information and cultural industries sector is an exception, with an employment increase of 7.4% in 2020. “However, this increase is mainly attributable to the telecommunications sub-sector. Cultural industries have experienced more modest growth. The film and sound recording industries actually fell 2.7% ”, we can read on the CAPACOA website.
Expertise lost?
“Recent data on participation in the labor force indicate that many cultural workers are no longer looking for work in the sector or that they have found work elsewhere in the economy”, further notes the CAPACOA. It is impossible to know if they will return in a revival, or if their expertise is lost for the arts and culture. “In November, the National Arts and Culture Impact Survey asked individual workers about their future in the arts sector: 65% of those surveyed planned to work in the arts and culture sector at the time. over the next 18 months. On the other hand, almost a third of cultural workers were ambivalent or planned to turn the page on their careers in the arts. “
According to CAPACOA, certain factors are decisive for the future of arts and culture in the country, and for the quality of the recovery: “the duration of public health restrictions on cultural activities, the level of support provided by governments during this second wave and during the recovery phase as well as the ability of organizations dependent on admission revenues to stay afloat until they are allowed to welcome art lovers again ”.
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