Giving Compass' Take:
- COVID-19 has significatnly impacted the labor workforce and will change the landscape of of arts and culture.
- What are the positive impacts on the art world? How can these new workforce trends beenfit arts education?
- Read about the decline in the U.S. nonprofit workfroce.
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In ways large and small, the way we work continues to change as we carry into the rest of 2022 and emerge from two years of seismic change. A true tussle between those who want it to go back to how it was, and those who want something new in the relationship between workers and work, is about to come to a head.
- (Re-)Shuffle Along
Nationally, we are in the midst of what has been named The Great Resignation, which has seen an average of 4 million people quitting their jobs each month since February 2021. - Collective Action
Meanwhile, workers are organizing, unionizing, and taking power in ways they haven’t before. - Mx. Independent
The ongoing pandemic has accelerated a long-term shift towards independent or gig work (something we in the arts already know about—a third of arts workers are independent workers) and increased the number of people who consider it not only a preferred way of working, but a more stable and secure one than certain W2 situations. - Work-From-Home 4EVA
At the height of the pandemic, two-thirds of all U.S. workers were working entirely out of their homes. As going back to the office becomes an option again, many workers are questioning whether being at the office is necessary at all. - Getting Re-educated
Workplace skill-building is shifting and changing, partly in reaction to the pandemic and remote work, and in part to anticipate the skills that will remain with human workers with the rise of more and better robotics and AI.
How will these trends impact the arts?
For our sector, the implications of this shift in work are, and will be, profound. The hardship of the pandemic created exoduses of artists leaving the arts field, either temporarily or permanently, and have opened new job training employment opportunities for creative workers and organizations. For those staying in the arts, collective organizing offers the promise of better wages and quality of life, which has led unions like Actors Equity to relax their requirements for entry and organizations like Bectu, a UK-based union for creative independent workers, to arise. As more people move into being independent workers outside the arts, the possibility that public policy will recognize the unique needs of such workers grows, which is good news for our sector—and as more people seek new careers and engage in new ways, the prospect of new uses for arts-based education emerge as well.
Read the full article about how new job market will impact the arts by Mr. Clayton W. Lord at ARTS Blog.