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The Australia Bureau of Statistics’ newly released Economic Activity Survey (EAS) shows that 201,000 people were employed in ‘arts and recreation services’ in Australia in 2014/15, with some industry sectors, particularly creative and performing arts activities, showing a significant decline in employment numbers compared to the previous year.

As part of the Economic Activity Survey (EAS), the ABS collects detailed information from a rotating program of industries. For 2014/15, the EAS collected additional information from Australian businesses/organisations classified to the Arts and recreation services Division of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification, 2006 edition (ANZSIC).

Herein, the ABS defines arts and recreation serives as comprising heritage, creative and performing arts, sport and recreation, and gambling.

Respective totals for employment in each sector in 2014/15 were heritage (7,000 people), creative and performing arts (33,000), sport and recreation (127,000) and gambling (34,000).

Within these totals, creative and performing arts employment declined by 7.4% in 2014/15 compared to from 2013/14.

The figures cover the period of the 2014 Federal budget, which cut funding of the arts by $87.1 million over four years but do not incorporate changes introduced in the 2015 budget.

The survey found that incomes in creative and performing arts activities decreased 1.9% to $3,462 million in 2014/15.

In sport and recreation, the survey comprised three diverse industry groups: Group 911 Sports and physical recreation activities, Group 912 Horse and dog racing activities and Group 913 Amusement and other recreation activities.

The graph below shows the varying contribution of each group to Total income and expenses.

Footnote(s): Note that the series labels above refer to ANZSIC Groups 911 Sports and physical recreation activities, 912 Horse and dog racing activities and 913 Amusement and other recreation activities.

Source(s): Australian Industry (cat. no. 8155.0)

The survey found that there were just over 127,000 people employed in sports and recreation activities at 30th June 2014/15. Herein sports and physical recreation activities employed 88,545 people (69.7% of total employment), amusement and other recreation activities employed 19,851 (15.6% of total employment) and horse and dog racing activities employed 18,679 (14.7% of total employment).

However, this figure contrasts with ABS data from 2011/12, released by the Australian Sports Commission in the Value of Sport, Australia, 2013 report, which showed that Australian sport employed about 134,000 Australians.

In addition, data released by Service Skills Australia in April last year showed that almost 96,000 people were employed in the fitness, recreation and sport sectors (sports and physical recreation activities), with employment growing by 34% between 2006 and 2011.

Click here for more information on the Economic Activity Survey (EAS) on the ABS website.

Top image courtesy of Adventure Park Geelong.

30th April 2015 - FITNESS, RECREATION AND SPORT EMPLOYMENT GREW BY 34% OVER FIVE YEARS

16th August 2014 - WE NEED ABS ARTS AND SPORTS DATA TO UNDERSTAND OUR CULTURE

8th June 2014 - ABS TO SCALE BACK COLLECTION OF CULTURE, RECREATION, SPORT AND TOURISM STATISTICS 

3rd June 2014  - AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENTS SPENT $7 BILLION ON CULTURAL ACTIVITIES 

24th October 2013 - AUSTRALIAN SPORT WORTH $12.8 BILLION IN INCOME, EMPLOYS 134,000

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