Britain - Not so creative afterall?
by Charlie Tims
Just came accross the "Creative Industries Economic Estimates Statistical Bulletin 2005", burried deep in the bowels of the DCMS website (what else are sundays for?). It shows that after rapid growth in the late 1990s, since 2001, employment in the creative industries has stagnated at about 1.8 million. It also suggests the number of businesses in the sector has fallen from 121, 900 to 113,300. Just thought it was odd as it seems to completely contradict the received wisdom, that Britain's creative economy is one of our fastest growing sectors and one of the most dynamic in the world. Admittedly many of the statistics on the creative economy are on the questionable side (normally for being too optimistic) but I thought it was worth flagging up anyway.