160,300 Arts-related Jobs in New York City

The AFM Local 802, the Arts Alliance and Cornell University produced a study in 2007 that measured the economic impact of the arts industry on New York State.  In New York City alone, they found that the arts produce 160,300 jobs, $8.2 billion in wages and $904 million in taxes to the city.  Overall, the arts injected over $21 billion into the local economy.

The study is available for download (PDF) here: Arts as an Industry: Their Economic Impact on New York City and New York State

The study tracked the expenditures of non-profit organizations, motion picture & television companies, commercial theaters, art galleries, as well as the arts-motivated tourists that came and spent their money in New York.  The study did not, it seems, include the impact of the live music scene at bars, clubs and non-traditional venues – but while that information would be very valuable, it must be, admittedly, difficult to track.

With a proposed budget in 2007 of $59 billion, the $904,000 paid to the city by it’s arts organizations may seems like a small amount of money – but the economic impact of arts orgnizations goes beyond just the taxes that they pay, and goes beyond the limits of this Cornell study.  Much, if not most, of the $8.2 billion in wages paid by the arts orgnizations to it’s workers ends up spent in New York businesses – restaurants, dry cleaners, groceries, etc.  Additionally, lest we not forget all those indie hipsters living in Brooklyn, the theatre crowd in Astoria, the music students on the UWS and punk rock bands on the LES – they are all paying rent, buying metro cards and plane tickets, groceries and clothes, etc., etc.  Those students are paying top dollar to study at NYU, Mannes, MSM, Columbia, Marymount and dozens of others.

The point of the study is to highlight the measurable, practical, financial importance of the arts in the local economy of New York with charts that they could point to when bureaucrats and politicians start talking about cutting funding to arts education, the NEA, symphony orchestras, theatre companies – and on and on.

This shows us musicians another thing, though.  It shows us that there are JOBS here, people!  It shows that there are gigs, and that people are making money as artists.  $8.2 billion in arts-related wages in New York alone?  Think about that.