DCMS Sector National Economic Estimates: 2011 - 2020

Question 1

1. Details

Accepted Answer

Release date: 23 December 2021

Geographic Coverage: United Kingdom

Responsible statistician: Rachel Moyce

Question 2

2. Introduction

Accepted Answer

The purpose of this publication is to report and compare economic measures for the DCMS sectors, where possible, for the past ten calendar years. Estimates covering more recent time periods are summarised in the table below.

Measure	Most recent data available		Next available data
	Time period covered	Date published	Time period covered	Date to be published
Employment	July 2020 - June 2021	October 2021	October 2020 - September 2021	February 2022
Earnings	April 2020 (provisional)	November 2020	April 2022	November 2022
GVA	September 2021	November 2021	December 2021	February 2022

Productivity is an experimental measure. We will release further details in due course as we develop it further.

We also produce estimates of international trade, and of business demographics for the DCMS sectors. These can be accessed via the Economic Estimates home page.

Question 3

3. Sectors

Accepted Answer

The Economic Estimates measure the economic contribution to the UK of each sector for which DCMS has responsibility:

Civil Society
Creative Industries
Cultural sector
Digital sector
Gambling
Sport
Telecoms
Tourism

For details of each sector’s definition, see the associated technical report. Please note, data is not available for all sectors, measures and years:

Estimates for the Tourism sector are only available for 2016 to 2020 as they rely on the Tourism Satellite Account. Tourism Satellite Account estimates prior to 2016 are not comparable, and were not available for 2021 at the time of publication.
Estimates of GVA by Civil Society are not available in this release, as we do not have an established method to estimate the type of GVA reported (chained volume measures) for that sector. Please refer to the most recent annual report for estimates of Civil Society GVA in current prices.
Estimates of productivity are not included for the Tourism sector and Civil Society in this release.

Question 4

4. Measures

Accepted Answer

This section outlines the meaning, construction, and limitations of the measures reported in this release.

In some cases, measures have been provided as an index. The index year has been chosen as 2016 because this is the earliest year common to all reported measures, with the exception of productivity, for which no time series is currently available.

4.1 Gross Value Added (GVA)

GVA measures the monetary value of all goods and services in an economy, minus the value of any intermediates, within a defined period of time. It is useful as a measure of the increase in the value of the economy due to the production of goods and services, however it is limited in that it excludes anything which does not have a market price. Its relationship to GDP is as follows:

GVA = GDP + Subsidies - Taxes

GVA is measured either in:

current basic prices (‘nominal GVA’), which give the best ‘instantaneous’ measure of the value to the economy, but are not adjusted for the effect of inflation
chained volume measures (‘real terms GVA’), where the effect of inflation is removed

We use current prices to report current sector estimates and chained volume measures for any comparisons over time.

This report includes two estimates of GVA in chained volume measures; our previously published annual estimates, and an interim measure based on our monthly GVA that we have developed for this release. We have used the monthly GVA to construct an annual estimate for 2020 due to delays in production of the data that we would normally use. Our usual estimate of GVA for 2020 will be published once data become available. Estimates for 2019 for both measures show good comparability, however as even small percentage differences in level estimates can affect year to year percentage changes, users are advised to be cautious when comparing the two series.

4.2 Employment

DCMS employment estimates provide an overview of those working in the DCMS sectors and the UK overall. They provide a measure of the number of jobs supported by industries within DCMS’s remit, and of the characteristics of the workforce by demographic group. This enables assessment of the contribution of DCMS industries to the UK economy, and a greater understanding of access to employment in the DCMS sectors.

Headline measures of employment (number of filled jobs) are calculated based on the Office for National Statistics Annual Population Survey (APS). The data in this publication represents a revised back series, using a new approach to calculate employment in Civil Society, as well as including the latest Tourism estimates.

The headline measures of employment are based on annual, calendar year data. While this release will primarily focus on the 2016 to 2020 estimates, the accompanying data tables will stretch from 2011 to 2020. We have also released estimates covering more recent, non-calendar years.

Employment estimates for social mobility and socio-economic background are based on the Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey (LFS). Data on social mobility is only available for one quarter per year from 2016 onwards, therefore estimates in this release (and accompanying data tables) will be based on data collected between July and September each year from 2016 to 2020.

Following a move to more machine-readable outputs, employment estimates for previous years have tended to be released as single year files, sometimes with slightly different demographic disaggregations as we have responded to new user needs. This release aims to make it easier for users to compare changes over time by releasing a coherent calendar year time series. The 2021 calendar year data will be available in summer 2022.

4.3 Earnings

Earnings can provide a proxy measure for a person’s total disposable income. Increased income enables people to purchase more goods and services and is associated with an improved standard of living. Estimates of earnings across sectors and between different groups, including over time, are important to understand how DCMS sector industries contribute to the economic wellbeing of the workforce, and whether inequalities exist between workers with different characteristics.

Our headline measure of earnings is nominal median annual earnings for all employees i.e. earnings of the self employed are not included.

Estimates of Annual Gross Pay, are based on data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). This survey uses employee data sampled from the PAYE system, but does not provide detailed employee characteristics. The ASHE dataset is a snapshot of earnings in the UK at a reference date in April each year. In 2020, the reference date was 22 April, during national lockdown. The data for both 2020 and 2021 includes furloughed employees.

Estimates of employee gross hourly pay in main jobs, for more detailed demographic breakdowns, are based on data from the Annual Population Survey. This has a smaller sample size and provides self-reported income, hence the ASHE is the preferred source of earnings data where possible.

The gender pay gap is calculated using hourly earnings excluding overtime. It is presented as the difference in median earnings for men and women as a percentage of the figure for men.

Estimates for pay whilst on furlough are available from the ASHE dataset. These are based on whether an individual was furloughed as part of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) on the survey reference date (this is always in April of the survey year). The estimates of pay to furloughed employees are based on actual payments made to the employee from company payrolls and the hours on which this pay was calculated, which in the case of furloughed employees are their usual hours. As employers could claim up to 80% of employees’ usual wages, we would expect earnings by furloughed employees to be lower than those of non-furloughed employees.

Unless otherwise stated, changes over time are reported in nominal terms, i.e., comparing earnings in the prices they were for the relevant year, rather than adjusting for inflation.

No data is available in either source for the self-employed.

4.4 Productivity

Productivity is a measure of how much output can be produced per unit of input. Raising productivity enables an economy to produce and consume more from a certain amount of input, so understanding how and why productivity increases is important to raise the country’s standard of living.

Labour Productivity is defined as output per unit of labour input and effectively shows changes in output over time for the same amount of labour input.

GVA / Employment = Labour Productivity

This release reports Labour productivity expressed in GVA per job. This was calculated by output (Gross Value Added) divided by the number of jobs. The recommended measure of jobs is productivity jobs, not the number of filled jobs in this release^{[footnote 1]}; combining the GVA and employment figures in this release will not provide a measure of productivity that is consistent with best practice, or the ONS figures, and is not recommended.

Estimates of productivity are based on ONS figures for productivity jobs, apportioned to DCMS sectors using BRES and APS employment data. These figures are consistent with ONS estimates, but are considered experimental for DCMS sectors. Feedback on their use and development should be sent to evidence@dcms.gov.uk.

All productivity figures are annual totals presented in 2019 prices and are rounded to the nearest £100.

Question 5

5. All DCMS Sectors

Accepted Answer

The ‘All DCMS sector’ total is the combined result for all the sectors for which DCMS is responsible. These are Civil Society, Creative Industries, the Cultural sector, the Digital sector, Gambling, Sport, Telecoms, and Tourism. Due to the way the sectors are defined, a particular industry can be included in more than one sector. For example, ‘Performing Arts’ is included in both the Creative Industries and the Cultural sector. Overlaps like these between the sectors, mean that the ‘All DCMS sector’ total does not equal the sum of the sectors. For more detail, please see the technical report.

In some cases, the DCMS sector total will exclude specific sectors. This is because data is not available for those sectors. If this is the case, the missing sector will be noted as in the following example: ‘all DCMS sectors (excluding Tourism)’.

5.1 Gross Value Added (GVA)

Latest estimate - leading indicator

We have published monthly estimates of the GVA in DCMS sectors (excluding Tourism and Civil Society) up to September 2021. These suggest that DCMS sector (excluding Tourism and Civil Society) monthly GVA in September 2021:

was 5.7% larger compared to January 2021, primarily due to the Sport and Creative Industries sectors, which grew by 45.1% and 4.8% respectively
was still 2.7% smaller than in February 2020 (the last month unaffected by pandemic measures).

Figure 1. Monthly GVA, seasonally adjusted, UK, January 2019 to September 2021 Base year = 2019

Annual measure for 2020

The leading indicator is more timely but less robust than our annual estimate, for which the latest available data is 2019. We typically publish our annual GVA estimate towards the end of the following year, however we are unable to do so for 2020 as release of the underlying data has been postponed to summer 2022. Instead, for this release, we have constructed an interim measure based on the monthly GVA, and we will publish a revised annual figure based on our standard methodology when the necessary data is available.

Estimates for 2020

Using our interim measure, we estimate^{[footnote 2]} that:

In 2020, GVA by DCMS sectors (excluding Civil Society and Tourism) was £179.6 billion, 9.7% lower in real terms than in 2019, a slightly larger fall than for the UK economy as a whole (-9.2%).
Prior to 2020, DCMS sector GVA grew faster than the UK economy as a whole, increasing by 25.4% in real terms between 2011 and 2019 compared to 15.9% for the UK economy.

The DCMS sector (excluding Civil Society and Tourism) GVA growth between 2011 and 2020 was primarily due to growth in the Creative Industries and the Digital sector.

Figure 2: Change in DCMS and sectors (excl. Civil Society and Tourism) from 2011 to 2020

5.2 Employment

Latest estimates - year to June 2021

We publish annual employment figures on a rolling quarterly basis. The latest published employment estimates cover the period July 2020 to June 2021, and show that the number of filled jobs in the DCMS sectors (excluding Tourism) was 4.2 million.

The last decade (calendar years) - 2011 to 2020

This publication includes a re-release of calendar year employment estimates for 2011 to 2020. It updates and develops aspects of the back series and provides a single, coherent, set of reference tables for users.

The number of filled jobs in the DCMS sectors (excluding Tourism) was 4.1 million in 2020 an increase of 23.6% since 2011, primarily due to growth in the Creative Industries and the Digital sector.

In 2020, the DCMS sectors had a lower proportion of filled jobs held by women, people from ethnic minority groups, and people with disabilities than the UK average. The proportion of DCMS sector (excluding Tourism) jobs held by people from ethnic minority groups, and people with disabilities, increased in line with the general UK workforce between 2011 and 2020, however the proportion of filled jobs held by women decreased.

In addition to our standard range of demographic breakdowns, we have published analysis of filled jobs by socio-economic background.

In 2020 people from more advantaged backgrounds held the largest share of filled jobs in the DCMS sectors (54.5%). People from less advantaged backgrounds and unknown backgrounds held 25.1% and 20.4% of the sector’s filled jobs, respectively. In 2020, the DCMS sectors had a larger proportion of filled jobs taken by those from a more advantaged background than the UK average (46.8%).

Upward social mobility, defined here as the proportion of those in higher class occupations from less advantaged backgrounds, is lower in the DCMS sectors (23.2%) compared to the UK overall (26.5%). More detail on the relation between socio-economic background and current occupation is shown in figure 3.

Figure 3: Proportion of jobs in DCMS sectors, and the UK, by current and former socio-economic status, 2020

Note: In 2020, a portion of the Gambling sector data and all of the Telecoms sector data have not been reported to protect the identities of respondents.

5.3 Earnings

We have updated our usual earnings estimates (calculated from ONS’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings) with provisional 2021 and final 2020 data. These show that:

In 2021, median annual earnings in DCMS sectors (excl. Tourism) were £31,375, 19.4% higher than the UK average (£26,280).
Earnings for employees in DCMS sectors (excl. Tourism) grew by less (5.6%) in nominal terms between 2016 and 2021 than the UK as a whole (11.7%).
On average, workers in DCMS sectors (excl.Tourism) who were on furlough in April 2021 earned £17,078, 53.1% less than those who were not furloughed (£36,388).
Median annual gross pay for DCMS (excl. Tourism) was highest in London (£39,375), followed by the South East (£36,000), similar to the pattern for all UK sectors. It was lowest in Wales (£23,666) and the North East (£24,338).
In 2021, the gender pay gap for DCMS sectors (excl. Tourism) was 22.6%, compared to 15.4% for the whole of the UK economy. In other words, women were paid 77p for every £1 earned by men in DCMS sectors, lower than the UK average of 85p.

We have also published a new set of earnings estimates based on Annual Population Survey data to 2020. These allow us to explore earnings for demographic groups not identifiable in the ASHE datasets. These new estimates showed that:

Looking across the years between 2016 and 2020 the pattern of earnings by ethnicity in DCMS sectors is similar to the UK as a whole; employees in the ‘Asian/Asian British’ ethnic group are estimated to have the highest earnings on average, and employees in the ‘Black/ African/Caribbean/Black British’ group were estimated to have the lowest. There is low confidence in some of the estimates due to small sample sizes. For this reason we have only provided summaries of earnings by ethnicity for the two largest DCMS sectors: Creative Industries, and the Digital sector.
Disabled employees in DCMS sectors earned £12.66 per hour on average, 15.6% less than non-disabled workers (£15.00). This was a larger difference than for the UK as a whole (-13.6%).

Productivity

We have produced this experimental measure for 2019 because this was the latest year for which data were available whilst the measure was being developed. We welcome user feedback.

In 2019, output per filled job in the DCMS sectors (excluding Civil Society) was £64,200, above the UK average (£58,100). The sectors with the highest output per filled job were Telecoms (£156,900), Digital sector (£93,300) and Gambling (£89,200). The sector with the lowest output per filled job was the Sport sector (£25,900).

Figure 4: Output per filled job (£) in each of the DCMS sectors (excluding Civil Society and Tourism), and the UK, 2019

Question 6

6. Creative Industries

Accepted Answer

The Creative Industries consists of all industries that match the definition in the government’s 2001 Creative Industries Mapping Document. Specifically, “those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property”. A more detailed definition is available in the methodology document.

According to this definition, the following sub sectors are included: ‘Crafts’, ‘Film, TV, video and photography’, ‘IT, software and computer services’, ‘publishing’, ‘Museums, galleries and libraries and Music’, ‘performing and visual arts’.