Creative economy accounts for fifth of London jobs

One in five jobs in London is in the creative economy, up from one in six in 2016, new research has revealed.

Data from a recently released City Hall report show that in 2021, more than 1.1m jobs in London were held by people employed in the creative economy.

That figure includes both creative and non-creative roles within the creative industries as well as creative occupations in other sectors.

Focusing solely on jobs in the creative industries, the report found 795,500 roles in London during 2021, accounting for one in seven and up from one in ten in 2010.  

Looking at the impact of the pandemic on the creative industries, the findings revealed that in London, between 2019 and 2020, the marketing and IT service sub-sectors saw increases in gross value added, while most other areas experienced significant declines, particularly museums, galleries and libraries, design, and music, performing and visual arts.

Collectively, the city's creative industries were shown to have generated £51.7bn in economic output in 2020, a fall of 6.0% compared to 2019, which was below the London average (-10.6%) but above that for the creative industries UK-wide (-4.9%). The report noted that most sub-sectors of the UK’s creative industry recorded higher-than-average growth between February to June 2023.

In 2021 26.6% of the capital's creative industry jobs were held by self-employed workers, compared to 29.6% for the sector in the rest of the UK. There was a drop of 3.9% in self-employment in the city between 2020 and 2021, partly attributed to job losses and workers reclassifying themselves as employees.

The research showed that in 2022, the median gross weekly earnings for the creative industries was £786, with a gender pay gap of 18.7% compared to London’s overall gender pay gap of 13.0%. Although more diverse than in the rest of the UK, in 2021, London’s creative industries were shown to be more predominantly white (76.2%)  than other sectors in the capital, representing a 5.3% drop from an all-time high in 2014.

Holding a degree or equivalent qualification was also found to be more prevalent for those working in the capital's creative industries (80.2%) than in the rest of the UK (64.0%) and for London overall (61.5%).

In response to the report, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “[The creative industries] are a huge success story contributing tens of billions of pounds to our nation and supporting businesses across the country through their supply chains. But [they] still have significant challenges, including spiralling operational costs, Brexit bureaucracy and reductions in funding.

"I’m committed to doing all I can to support our creative businesses and continue to urge Ministers to provide sufficient support to help our creative industries drive economic growth and jobs as we build a better London for everyone.”