White people claim 93% of jobs in UK music and arts industry

The UK music industry has serious cause for concern over its current record on racially diverse employees, according to new Government figures. Music Week has seen new DCMS national statistics regarding employment in the UK creative industries, and it doesn’t make for triumphant reading. In 2013, just 6.7% of all jobs in the UK’s ‘Music, Performing and Visual Arts Industries’ were held by people who could be categorised as BAME (‘black, Asian and minority ethnic’).

That figure represented a 0.8% rise in BAME employees on 2011, but couldn’t hide the shocking fact that 93.3% of employees in the sector – or around 19 in every 20 people – was white.

Unfortunately, a fully accurate depiction of music industry employment figures could not be gleaned from the  report, Creative Industries: Focus On Employment, as it lumps together data from both the UK’s performing arts and music sectors – and fails to break down the two industries into their respective fields.

Regardless, the overwhelming impression is hardly a boundlessly positive one.

In fact, a smaller proportion of employees categorised as BAME appeared in the Music and Performing Arts industries than other sectors including Advertising & Marketing (10.5% BAME), IT, Software and Computer Services (15%) and Publishing (10.6%).

Officially, job sectors covered by the ‘Music, Performing and Visual Arts’ category in the report were: Sound Recording and Music Publishing; Artistic Creation; Cultural Education; Performing Arts; Support Activities to Performing Arts and Operation of Artist Facilities.

Overall, 227,000 jobs were held by white people in the sector with a paltry 16,000 held by BAME individuals.

Source: Music Week