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EMPLOYMENT

Survey of Performing Arts Industries

Putting together a production requires more than performers. Technicians, producers, directors, stage managers, those involved in marketing and sales, ticket collectors and a variety of others all contribute. According to the 2002-03 ABS survey of Performing Arts Industries, there were 7,842 people employed in the music and theatre production industry in June 2003 (this survey only includes people working for organisations with employees).

Of these, 60% were performing artists, 17% were in managerial or administrative roles and 10% were providing artistic support (e.g. choreographers, composers and music directors). While the industry employed roughly equal numbers of males and females (52% and 48% respectively), the majority of performing artists employed were male (58%) while the majority of managerial and administrative staff were female (65%). The survey also found that there were 2,548 people working as volunteers in the industry during the month of June 2003.

Organisations involved in running performing arts festivals of more than 2 days duration during 2002-03, reported employing a total of 1,272 people. While the festivals were on, they received assistance from 15,728 volunteers working an average of 25 hours each.


Census of Population and Housing

The performing arts surveys do not give information on the occupations in which people work, and it is necessary to analyse data from the 2006 Census of Population and Housing for such detail. According to the Census, there were 14,481 people whose main job was in the Creative arts, musicians, writers and performers industry in August 2006. Musician was the largest occupation category in this industry with 2,345 people (16%). There were also 412 people who indicated that they worked as Singers and 397 as Actors in this industry. However, this does not represent all the singers and actors in Australia, with many people reporting having these occupations whilst being employed in other industries.

For example, there were a total of 1,258 people in various Australian industries who described their main job as "actor" in August 2006, with the largest concentrations outside of the performing arts industries in the Free-to-air television broadcasting (130 people), the Motion picture and video production (67 people) and the Advertising services industries (67 people).

The same is also true of many performing arts occupations, with opportunities for employment existing in many different industries. In a statistical overview publication it is not possible to detail in which industries all performing arts workers are employed, however, such detail is available in Employment in Culture, Australia, 2006 ( cat. no. 6273.0).

12.10 PERSONS EMPLOYED IN SELECTED PERFORMING ARTS INDUSTRIES(a)(b), By occupation - August 2006
			Number	%
	Performing arts operation
		Musician	864	20.0
		Singer	206	4.8
		Dancer or choreographer	202	4.7
		Media producer	185	4.3
		Actor	150	3.5
		Entertainer or variety artist	133	3.1
		Other cultural occupations	1 028	23.8
		Total cultural occupations	2 768	64.1
		Other occupations	1 552	35.9
		Total occupations	4 320	100.0
	Creative artists, musicians, writers and performers
		Musician	2 345	16.2
		Painter	1 508	10.4
		Author	1 143	7.9
		Print journilist	605	4.2
		Singer	412	2.8
		Actor	397	2.7
		Other cultural occupations	5 513	38.1
		Total cultural occupations	11 923	82.3
		Other occupations	2 558	17.7
		Total occupations	14 481	100.0
	Performing arts venues
		Light technician	100	3.7
		Cinema or theatre manager	78	2.9
		Sound technician	60	2.2
		Arts administrator or manager	59	2.2
		Actor	52	1.9
		Media producer	44	1.6
		Other cultural occupations	326	12.2
		Total cultural occupations	719	26.9
		Other occupations	1 956	73.1
		Total occupations	2 675	100.0
(a) Cells in this table have been randomly adjusted to avoid the release of confidential data.
(b) In their main job in the week before Census Night.
Source: ABS, 2006 Census of Population and Housing, data available on request.

12.11 PERSONS INVOLVED IN MUSIC AND THE PERFORMING ARTS, By payment status - 12 months ending April 2007
		Some paid involvement	Unpaid involvement only	Total(a)
NUMBER ('000)
Music
	As a live performer	90.6	159.1	249.7
	No involvement as a live performer	28.3	50.8	79.1
	Total(b)	118.8	209.9	328.8
Performing arts
	As a performer	38.9	238.7	277.6
	No involvement as a performer	37.9	183.4	221.3
	Total	76.8	422.1	499.0
PER CENT (%)
Music
	As a live performer	36.3	63.7	100.0
	No involvement as a live performer	35.8	64.2	100.0
	Total	36.1	63.8	100.0
Performing arts
	As a performer	14.0	86.0	100.0
	No involvement as a performer	17.1	82.9	100.0
	Total	15.4	84.6	100.0
(a) Includes some people for whom payment details are not known.
(b) Total includes some persons for whom details are unavailable.
Source: ABS, Survey of Work in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities, 2007, data available on request.