Cultural economy: new figures on cultural workers 2023 in Switzerland
Half of cultural workers work part-time, 14% have more than one job and just over a quarter are self-employed, considerably more than in the overall economy. In Switzerland, cultural workers earned a median wage of CHF 69 600, and for part-time work CHF 45 700 in 2023. There was a large gender pay gap: a female cultural worker earned CHF 78 000 for a full-time job, while her male colleague earned CHF 98 000.
In addition to cultural values, culture also creates economic value, jobs and generates income. This is what the cultural economy statistics are about.
The definition of the cultural economy used here is based on Eurostat recommendations. It is founded on a traditional understanding of culture, extended to sectors in which creativity plays a key role (e.g., architecture, video games, crafts and advertising). Unlike the ‘creative economy’ which also includes IT and software in general as well as marketing, the focus here is on culture in the narrower sense of the term.
The cultural economy statistics are synthesis statistics based on existing FSO surveys, examining the topic from two perspectives:
- Cultural enterprises in the cultural sector with their workplaces and employment (jobs). The results here are based on the structural business statistics (STATENT), the statistics on business demography (UDEMO) and the production and value added statistics (WS).
- Cultural workers in the broadest sense, i.e., people (including the self-employed) who mainly work in the cultural sector plus those who pursue a cultural profession as their main job outside the cultural sector. The sources used here are the Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS), the Swiss Earnings Structure Survey (ESS) and the Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC).
At a glance
Enterprises
| Cultural enterprises (2021) | Cultural economy | Share of overall economy | |||
| Enterprises | 65’369 | 10.4% | |||
| Worksplaces | 67’788 | 9.6% | |||
| Jobs | 233’549 | 4.3% | |||
| FTEs | 159’546 | 3.8% | |||
| Value added (in CHF) | 15.2 billions | 2.0% |
Persons
| Cultural workers (2023) | Cultural economy | Overall economy |
| Economically active persons | 285’314 | 5.6% |
| Unemployed persons (ILO definition) | 3.1% | 4.0% |
| Share of women | 50.2% | 46.8% |
| Share of tertiary-level qualifications | 59.5% | 43.5% |
| Share of foreign nationals | 21.7% | 28.7% |
| Share of persons with a migration background | 36.6% | 43.3% |
| Share of self-employed | 27.0% | 14.0% |
Source: Statistics Switzerland
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