Multiple job holding in the arts and culture has steadily increased since the pandemic

Also: Comparisons with other sectors and between women and men

Today’s post is an update about multiple job holding among employed workers in the arts and culture. As I noted last year, if driven by need rather than personal choice, multiple job holding can be an aspect of the precarity of workers in the arts and culture.

Readers should keep in mind that the data source (Labour Force Survey annual averages) excludes self-employed workers. Because artists have very high self-employment rates, many of them are excluded from the data, along with other self-employed cultural workers. However, those self-employed artists and cultural workers who have an employed position in their main job are included.

In this post, the phrase “workers in the arts and culture” relates to the combined total for three occupation groupings that are readily available from Statistics Canada (professional / technical / other occupations). Information about these broad groups of occupations, representing 485,000 employees, is provided at the end of the post.

Because of its relatively small sample size, the Labour Force Survey doesn’t allow us to pinpoint specific occupations, even looking at annual averages. That is why I’m sticking with the three groupings of arts and culture employees.

Today’s post examines the nationwide picture, with a provincial analysis coming in two weeks.