Canada’s Cultural Sector Labour Force
Commissioned from Hill Strategies Research by the Cultural Human Resources Council
This study focuses on the arts, culture and heritage labour force in Canada based largely on data from the 2001 census. Rather than delving into a significant analysis of this segment of the labour force, this study presents detailed, reliable and recent statistics on the arts, culture and heritage labour force. A separate document from the Cultural Human Resources Council will address a human resources development strategy for the cultural sector. This statistical report attempts to fill the gap noted by the CHRC report, Face of the Future, which noted that statistics are required for planning, advocacy and policy-making in the cultural sector, especially regarding “the structure and evolution of the cultural sector and its workforce at the national, provincial, regional and municipal levels”. The report also noted that “there is a dearth of data on the composition of the cultural labour force in terms of equity issues such as gender, race and ethnocultural background, disabilities and so on”.
This study aims to fill many of these gaps by providing reliable data and significant information on many aspects of Canada’s cultural labour force. This study presents statistics concerning:
* the earnings of cultural workers;
* the size and earnings of the cultural workforce in each province and territory;
* the size and earnings of the cultural workforce in Canada’s 27 Census Metropolitan Areas;
* breakdowns of the cultural labour force by sex, age, class of worker, education, immigration status, visible minority status, Aboriginal identity and language; and
* trends in the cultural labour force over the last 30 years.
The report is available from the Cultural Human Resources Council:
Canada’s Cultural Sector Labour Force
