Sarah Litchman
According to a research committed by the statistical office of the European Union Eurostat last month, Italy earns the spot of 19 out of 28 countries for the percentage of people engaged in the cultural sector: quite a paradox for country that has the greatest cultural heritage in the world.
During the period analysed, which covered the years between 2011 and 2016, the number of workers in the cultural sector has declined from 3.5% to 3.4%, demonstrating how the negative trend continues.
The data presented were taken from the EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) covering the population aged 15 and over.
The analysis provides an overview of cultural employment comparing it to total employment over time and other variables used in the EU-LFS such as age, gender and educational attainment.
The report considered as ‘cultural works’ professions such as writers, architects, musicians, journalists, actors, dancers, librarians, handicraft workers or graphic designers.
Italy recedes to the third position if analyzed by the segment of younger workers (15-29 year-old), and is one of the four EU countries whose share of graduates engaged in the sector does not exceed 50%.