Latest update: 25 January 2023

The number of jobs in the Creative Industries Growth Sector (culture and arts). Find out more about this indicator.

In 2021, there were 78,000 jobs in Scotland’s Creative Industries sector, down by 9,000 jobs (-10.3%) on 2020.

The number of jobs in Scotland’s Creative Industries sector decreased by 10.3% between 2020 and 2021. The decrease over the latest year was driven by a fall in jobs in ‘Software/electronic publishing’.    

Breakdowns for this indicator are available for urban/rural breakdown, sub-sector breakdown and local authority. These can be viewed on the Equality Evidence Finder.

In 2021, the Local Authority areas with the highest number of jobs in the Creative Industries sector were Glasgow City and City of Edinburgh (around 21,000 and 17,000 jobs respectively).

The vast majority of Creative Industries jobs are in Scotland’s urban areas. In 2021, there were 71,000 Creative Industries jobs in Scotland’s urban areas, this compares to 7,000 Creative Industries jobs in Scotland’s rural areas.

In 2021, the sub-sectors ‘Software/electronic publishing’ and ‘Design’ made up the largest share of employment in the Creative Industries sector (30,500 and 7,600 jobs respectively). Between 2020 and 2021, the number of jobs in ‘Software/electronic publishing’ fell by 18.9% but for Design rose by 14.0%.