4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 1995  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 20/06/1995   
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Contents >> Culture and Leisure >> Special Feature: Culture-leisure workers

Special Feature: Culture-leisure workers

In 1992-93, 1.6 million people did some work in culture-leisure. Most of these people did not receive payment for their work.

Australians are consumers of a wide variety of culture and leisure products and services. The workers who produce these products and services are largely unpaid. For example, public radio, music and community culture activities are particularly reliant on volunteers1. Consequently there is often a shortage of workers in culture and leisure.


Culture-leisure

Culture-leisure in this review is restricted to the scope of the National Culture-Leisure Industry Statistical Framework, 4th edition, 1991. This framework presents culture-leisure as an industry and covers those aspects of culture and leisure which fall within the scope of the portfolio of responsibilities of the Cultural Ministers Council. As such it includes areas such as national heritage, museums, literature, libraries and archives, music, performing arts, visual arts, film and video, radio, television, community activities, education, festivals and administration, and natural environment. While sport is included in the framework it is not part of the Cultural Ministers Council's portfolio and is thus excluded from this review. Areas of culture such as religion and areas of leisure such as tourism are excluded from the framework.

The culture-leisure industry is all those industries selected as being involved in the production of culture and leisure products and services. The selection of these industries is based on the areas included in the National Culture-Leisure Industry Statistical Framework, 4th edition, 1991.

Work in culture-leisure refers to paid or unpaid work in the culture-leisure industry, which was used by, or benefited, people other than the worker or the worker's family. Workers may undertake more than one type of work. Work refers to the type of work done (eg as a writer) and not individual pieces of work (eg books).

Employment in culture-leisure refers to any paid work in the culture-leisure industry undertaken as a main job. Cultural occupations are those where the majority of people in that occupation are employed in the culture-leisure industry.


Culture-leisure workers
In 1992-93, 896,000 women and 705,000 men did some work in culture-leisure (13% of women and 10% of men aged 15 and over). Women who worked in culture-leisure were more likely to be unpaid than men, 68% compared to 61%. This is consistent with the tendency for women to undertake more of the unpaid work in society generally (see Australian Social Trends 1994, Unpaid household work).

The greatest proportion of culture-leisure workers were aged 35-44. There were equal proportions of both male and female culture-leisure workers in this age group (28%). Only 19% of culture-leisure workers were aged 15-24.

Many people did more than one type of work in culture-leisure. The average number of different types of work per worker was 1.7. People who did only paid work averaged 1.9 types of work compared to 1.6 for those who did only unpaid work and 1.5 for those who did both. For many workers, their work in culture-leisure was not their main job.

PEOPLE(a) WHO WORKED IN CULTURE-LEISURE, 1992-93(b)

Men
Women
Persons
Type of work
%
%
%

Paid work only
19.5
15.6
17.3
Unpaid work only
61.3
68.5
65.3
Paid and unpaid work
19.3
15.9
17.4
All work
100.0
100.0
100.0
'000
'000
'000
Total workers
704.8
895.9
1,600.7

(a) Aged 15 and over.
(b) During the 12 months ending March 1993.

Source: Survey of Work in Selected Culture/Leisure Activities


Time spent working
Three-quarters of all types of culture-leisure work consisted of less than 10 hours a week. However, the time spent working depended on whether the work was paid. 17% of types of work for which some payment was received lasted for 35 hours or more a week, compared to only 1% of unpaid types of work.

The average number of weeks spent working also varied according to whether any payment was received. 22% of all unpaid types of work lasted longer than 26 weeks during the year. However, for types of work where some payment was received, 51% lasted longer than 26 weeks.

Type of work
The overall participation rate in culture-leisure work was 118 per 1,000 population aged 15 and over. Organising fetes and festivals was the most common type of work with a participation rate of 32 per 1,000 population. This was followed by teaching cultural activities (21 per 1,000) and writing and publishing (20 per 1,000).

Participation in paid work only was most likely to be in teaching cultural activities (8 per 1,000) or writing and publishing (5 per 1,000). Participation in unpaid work only was most likely to be in organising fetes and festivals (30 per 1,000) or in performing arts (13 per 1,000).

Both men and women were more likely to participate in organising fetes and festivals than in any other type of work (26 per 1,000 and 39 per 1,000 respectively). For men writing and publishing was next most common type of work with a participation rate of 23 per 1,000 men. For women it was teaching cultural activities at 26 per 1,000 women.

PARTICIPATION RATE(a) IN TYPES OF CULTURE-LEISURE WORK, 1992-93(b)

Paid only
Unpaid only
Paid & unpaid
Total
Type of work
rate
rate
rate
rate

Fete/festival organising
1.0
30.3
1.3
32.5
Teaching cultural activities
8.1
8.8
3.9
20.9
Writing/ publishing
5.3
10.3
4.5
20.1
Music(c)
1.7
12.0
3.3
17.0
Performing arts(c)
1.1
13.3
1.4
15.8
Art/craft show organising
0.6
8.3
0.9
9.9
Textiles
1.2
4.1
1.7
7.0
Drawing
1.8
3.5
1.7
7.0
Design
2.5
2.2
1.7
6.4
Libraries/archives
2.7
2.6
1.0
6.3
All types of work
20.3
76.9
20.5
117.7

(a) Rate per 1,000 population aged 15 and over.
(b) During the 12 months ending March 1993.
(c) Includes those who were not live performers.

Source: Survey of Work in Selected Culture/Leisure Activities


Cultural occupation groups
Included in the number of people who did some work in culture-leisure are those who were employed in the culture-leisure industry as their main job. Information on this group is only available from the Census of Population and Housing because the definitions of the culture-leisure industry and of cultural occupations require data at a level of detail too fine for reliable estimates from sample surveys. Data in 1986 were coded at a broader level than in 1991 and time series comparisons are therefore restricted to occupation groups.

Between 1986 and 1991 there was a 12% increase in the number of people employed in cultural occupation groups, 7% for men and 23% for women. Over the same period, the total number of employed people increased by 9%. The cultural occupation group which showed the largest increase in employment was authors and related professionals (49%). This was followed by painters, sculptors and related professionals (37%), and craftworkers (30%). The two occupation groups with decreases in employment between 1986 and 1991 were performing arts support workers, which fell by 10%, and architects and landscape architects, which fell by 4%.

Cultural occupations
In 1991, almost 183,000 people were employed in the culture-leisure industry. Of these, 119,500 people were employed in cultural occupations, 2% of all those employed. The other 63,200 people were employed in non-cultural occupations in the culture-leisure industry (eg a carpenter employed by a dance group to make sets). Of those employed in cultural occupations in cultural industries, 16% were in creative arts, 14% in libraries, 13% in television stations, and 10% in live theatre, orchestras and bands.

30% of those employed in cultural occupations were aged 25-34 compared to 16% aged 15-24. This age distribution was similar to that of all employed people.

37% of people who were employed in a cultural occupation had qualifications in a culture related field such as music, visual and performing arts, literature, graphic design, architecture, interior design and communication.

In 1991, 9% of people employed in cultural occupations were librarians. A further 7% each were library assistants, architects, graphic designers, and reporters.

Women made up a greater proportion of people employed in cultural occupations than in all occupations (48% compared to 43%). In particular women were more likely than men to work in libraries. In 1991, women accounted for 83% of all librarians, 87% of all library assistants and 88% of all library technicians. Women were also more likely to work as private music teachers than men. Men were more likely than women to work as architects, graphic designers, reporters, photographers, instrumental musicians or architectural associates.

TOP TEN CULTURAL OCCUPATIONS, 1991

Men
Women
Persons
Cultural occupations
'000
'000
'000

Librarian
1.8
8.7
10.5
Library assistant
1.2
7.7
8.8
Architect
7.6
1.1
8.7
Graphic designer
4.8
3.9
8.6
Reporter
5.1
3.9
8.5
Private music teacher
1.5
4.0
5.5
Photographer
3.9
1.3
5.2
Instrumental musician
4.0
1.1
5.2
Architectural associate
3.7
0.7
4.4
Library technician
0.4
3.3
3.7
All cultural occupations
62.0
57.5
119.5

Source: Census of Population and Housing


Hours worked
The majority (64%) of people who were employed in cultural occupations as a main job worked 35 hours or more a week. However, this was a smaller proportion than for all occupations. 24% of people employed in cultural occupations worked 1-24 hours a week, compared to 17% for all occupations.

Cultural occupations consisting mainly of people who worked less than 35 hours included entertainment ushers, private music teachers, popular singers, private drama teachers and private dance teachers. In comparison, more than 85% of cadet journalists, media producers, architects, casting directors, film or stage directors, and art directors worked 35 hours or more.

HOURS WORKED(a) BY EMPLOYED PEOPLE, 1991



(a) Refers to hours worked in previous week. Not stated responses have been excluded from the calculations.
(b) Includes people on holidays, sick leave, on strike, temporarily stood down etc.

Source: Census of Population and Housing


Endnotes

1 Cultural Ministers Council Statistical Advisory Group (1991) The Australian Cultural Industry: A Summary of 1988 Cultural Statistics.



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