In addition to the cultural enterprise approach, the cultural economy can also be described in terms of cultural workers. There are three potential combinations between cultural occupations and cultural domains that allow a more comprehensive understanding of “cultural workers” (see Graph G3):
1. People holding a cultural occupation in the cultural sector (e.g.: musician in an orchestra)
2. People holding a cultural occupation but outside of the cultural sector (e.g.: photographer in a chemicals company)
3. People holding a non-cultural occupation in the cultural sector (e.g.: accountant in a theatre)
The domains defined as cultural are listed in chapter 1. The occupations that may be deemed “cultural” were defined by Eurostat together with the cultural domains. They are defined as “occupations involved in the creative and artistic economic cycle i.e. creation, production, dissemination and trade, preservation, education, management and regulation, as well as heritage collection and preservation” (European Commission 2012: 144; see methodology section in the annex).
According to the approach adopted at European level, combinations 1, 2 and 3 are considered together and individually, where 1 and 3 together correspond to the cultural sector with the 11 cultural domains analysed in the enterprise perspective; however, combination 2 is calculated in addition. The deciding factor is always the main occupation, so in the case of several occupational activities, the one that takes up the most time. People who do artistic activities “as a sideline” are thus not included. This focus on main occupations results in an under-estimation of the actual number of cultural workers, despite inclusion of cultural workers from outside the cultural sector.
4.1 Number of cultural workers
The following section – instead of looking at jobs, as in section 2.1 – looks at people, usually economically active persons, i.e. all available workers from 15 years of age, regardless of whether they are employed, out of work or looking for work. Where it makes sense for the analyses (e.g. for work-time percentage, journey to work etc.), it describes employed persons, i.e. those who are actually working, including apprentices.
Over 300 000 cultural workers
In 2019, there were 312 000 cultural workers in Switzerland, which equates to 6.3% of Switzerland’s total working population. The analysis shows that the largest group is those who work in the cultural sector but do not hold a cultural occupation (36%). People who hold a cultural occupation in a cultural sector account for 32% of cultural workers. Table T5 also shows that cultural workers who work outside of the cultural sector make up the same proportion (32%).
Cultural workers (economically active persons) according to classification, 2019T5
| Occupation | Sector | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cultural | Non-cultural | ||
| Cultural | 98 982 (32%) | 100 227 (32%) | 199 209 |
| Non-cultural | 112 973 (36%) | – | 112 973 |
| Total | 211 955 | 100 227 | 312 182 (100%) |
Source: FSO – Statistics on the cultural economy; SLFS
© FSO 2020
Compared with 2010, the number of cultural workers increased by 12.3% (from 278 000), while the overall economy grew by +11.4%. There are differences between the individual cultural domains: while the proportion of cultural workers in the domain Books and press fell sharply (from 23% to 16%), the proportion of cultural workers in Visual arts (from 7% to 10%) and Architecture (15% to 19%) increased.
Main source of data on cultural workers: the SLFS
The Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS) has been providing information on the structure of the labour force and employment behaviour patterns of the resident population since 1991. Since 2010, it has been based on a quarterly survey with 126 000 interviews conducted annually (each respondent is surveyed four times over an 18-month period) and covers all employment situations, including self-employment. The SLFS is compatible with OECD and EU data.
By international comparison – calculated on the basis of Labour Force Studies (LFS) Certain 4-digit NOGA codes are missing because they are not available in some countries (4761, 4762, 4763; 5821; 6391; 7111; 7311; 7722 as well as 3212 and 8552). – Switzerland is at the upper end of the table with 5.4% of cultural workers, alongside countries such as Iceland, Malta, Estonia, Luxembourg and Finland.
Quite low work-time percentage
Around half (49%) of the cultural workforce (employed persons) worked full-time in 2018 (in other words a work-time percentage of 90% or more). The proportion of full-time workers is therefore much lower than in the overall economy (63%). The gender split plays a role here. While 65% of male cultural workers worked full-time in 2019, this was only the case for 33% of female cultural workers. There is a difference in the overall economy, too; however, the proportion of women is higher among cultural workers, as we will see below (see section 4.2). The proportion of full-time workers has decreased since 2010 (from 56% to 49%), similar to the trend in the overall economy (from 66% to 63%).
Within the cultural sector, full-time work is more widespread in the domains Architecture (where 68% of cultural workers work full-time), Audio-visual and multimedia (58%), Art crafts (56%) and Books and press (55%), while this is much less common in Performing arts (48%), Visual arts (47%), Archives/Libraries (25%) and Heritage (23%). Outside of the cultural sector, only 42% of cultural workers worked full-time in 2019.
Fewer unemployed persons than in the overall economy
Of the 312 000 cultural workers, 302 000 were economically active (employed persons, including apprentices). The unemployment rate – calculated according to international conventions (ILO, see methodology section in the annex) – amounted to 3.2% among cultural workers in 2019. This figure is lower than in the overall labour market (4.4%). However, there is greater variation: while the unemployment rate in Switzerland has ranged from 4.4% to 4.9% since 2010, in the cultural sector it has fluctuated between 3.2% and 4.2%.
4.2 Profile of cultural workers
Female and male dominated cultural domains
The cultural economy tends to be more female: at 51%, the proportion of women in 2019 was higher than in the overall economy (47%). The proportion of women has also increased slightly: from 48% in 2010 to 51% in the cultural economy, which is significantly more than in the overall economy (from 46% to 47%).
In the cultural sector itself, women are clearly in the majority in Advertising (60%), Cultural education (62%), Heritage (69%) and – to an even greater extent – Archives/Libraries (76%), while there are more men in Performing arts (62%), Audio-visual and multimedia (58%) and Architecture (57%). Among cultural workers active outside the cultural sector, the gender ratio is exactly 50:50 (see Graph G4).
Slightly older than in the overall economy
Cultural workers are slightly older on average (43.5 years old in 2019) than workers in the overall economy (41.9 years old). The age of workers is above average in some cultural domains. This is the case in Heritage (48.9 years), Cultural education (48.0 years), Visual arts (47.4 years), Performing arts (46.4 years) and Books and press (44.8 years). Workers are comparatively younger in Architecture (39.9 years) and Audio-visual and multimedia (38.3 years).
Other nationalities less present
At 80% (2019), the vast majority of cultural workers (economically active persons) are Swiss nationals, although that proportion has fallen slightly since 2010 (82%). Swiss nationals make up a much greater proportion of the cultural sector than of the overall economy (73%). The proportion of Swiss citizens is marked in Archives/Libraries (90%), Heritage (88%) and Art crafts (88%), and is slightly lower in Architecture (79%), Cultural education (78%) and Advertising (77%).
The proportion of Swiss cultural workers is much higher in German-speaking Switzerland (82%) than in Italian-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland (76% and 74%, respectively). Of the seven major regions, the proportion of Swiss cultural workers is highest in Espace Mittelland (86%) and in Central Switzerland (85%), and is lowest in the Lake Geneva region (73%) and Ticino (74%). These regional differences reflect those of the overall economy, although the proportion of cultural workers who are Swiss nationals is higher in all regions.
Well qualified workforce
Cultural workers are a well-qualified section of the workforce: in 2019, the majority (56%) of the economically active persons held a tertiary qualification compared with 42% of the total workforce (see Graph G5).
Since 2010, the proportion of cultural workers holding a tertiary level qualification has increased by 9 percentage points. However, this mirrors a general trend in the workforce, where the proportion of highly-qualified workers increased by 10 percentage points over the same period.
Male cultural workers are more highly qualified than their female counterparts (60% versus 52% hold tertiary-level qualifications, respectively). However, this gap has narrowed slightly compared with 2010 (when the figures were 51% versus 41%). Non-Swiss cultural workers are much better qualified than Swiss ones: the proportion of people with a tertiary qualification is higher (66%) than among Swiss nationals (53%), and the proportion whose educational attainment is an upper secondary qualification is much lower (26% versus 40%).
Relatively few people switch careers
Do cultural workers normally practice the occupation in which they trained, or is it the norm for people to switch? In 2019, 46% of cultural workers were working in an occupation that was different to the field of their highest qualification. However, in the overall economy this figure is even higher (51%). The proportion of switchers is quite low in Architecture (26%), while in Audio-visual and multimedia it is much higher (64%).
Continuing education in the cultural sector
In 2019, 31% of cultural workers (here excluding apprentices) had attended a course, congress or seminar or taken private lessons in the four weeks preceding the survey. This is in line with the figure for the overall economy.
In 2019, continuing education was quite common in the domains of Heritage (35%) and Cultural education (38%), and less so in Books and press (23%). Female cultural workers are more likely to take continuing education courses than men (33% versus 24%). The most likely to take continuing education courses are 25- to 54-year-olds. The higher their educational attainment, the more likely people are to take continuing education and training courses: 35% of cultural workers with a tertiary qualification attended a continuing education course (lower and upper secondary level: 21% and 27%, respectively); in the economy as a whole this figure is 42%.