A positive economic sign for New Jersey's creative sector

Our colleagues at the Rutgers Economic Advisory Service (R/ECON) predict a slow growth for New Jersey's economy.  There are signs that indicate that the creative sector in the state could continue growing faster.

According to the New Jersey State Department of Labor, in 2009, the arts, entertainment and recreation industry was one of the fastest growing industries in the state.  The number of employees grew 8% between January and December, outpacing all but the natural resources and mining industry.  (That grew fast because that industry is so small.)  Seasonally adjusted numbers show that the number of people in the arts, entertainment and recreation industries added 4,000 jobs, from 52,400 to 56,400.

And the trend is continuing.  Between January and March 2010, the number of jobs in the arts, entertainment and recreation industry grew 3%. 

The report doesn't say how many of these jobs are in the arts as opposed to in casinos or sports stadiums.  But knowing that Atlantic City had a rough year in 2009, and that there has been growth in the creative sector in the past decade, it is likely that some, if not a lot, of the growth is due to the arts.

We'll know exactly how much in 2011, when we can get more detailed employee information from the U.S. Department of Commerce's County Business Patterns database.
 
So what does all this data mean for cultural professionals and the creative economy in New Jersey?

*Even in a down economy, people support the arts.  Maybe they don't spend as much, but they continue to support the arts.
*The experience economy is growing faster than the manufacturing, information, or other economies that New Jersey has depended on.  The arts are a critical component of the experience economy. 
*Though arts organizations have to watch the stock market to guess how much support they will get from foundations, the arts in New Jersey do not have to depend on the fortunes of Wall Street bankers or wealthy people in other industries that have been hard-hit in the recession.
*In a down economy, people tend to travel shorter distances.  It could be that some weekend visits to Asheville and Santa Fe are being replaced with day trips to Red Bank, Millville and Montclair.  New Jersey attracts visitors from throughout the Northeast Corridor area, and was seeing an upswing in visitors before the Great Recession.  For more on tourism in New Jersey, see the work of the New Jersey Center for Hospitality and Tourism Research at Stockton College.  


For more information on trends in New Jersey's creative sector over the past decade, please see the New Jersey Creative Vitality Index.


Special note: Because of the different ways the creative economy is measured, Arts Build Communities, Americans for the Arts, and state and federal sources generate different numbers.  However, all of the sources tell roughly the same story -- the arts are a significant part of New Jersey's overall economy, and the creative sector is growing.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP