Economy White Paper Series

This White Paper is part of the Center for Economic Forecasting’s ongoing research about California’s Creative Economy, its industry sectors, and workforce. Amid the angst of the pandemic and its economic effects, the authors provide clear diagnostics that help inform long range economic and workforce development efforts within the creative industries.

Overall, the analysis finds that the economy that houses industries such as entertainment, media, fashion, and fine arts in California has weathered the pandemic and done better in its recovery from the COVID-driven recession than the overall economy. The authors examine trends in the state’s creative industries prior to, during, and following the pandemic recession, finding that the Creative Economy has added a total of 70,064 jobs since 2015 and appears to be bouncing back to its 2019 pre-pandemic peak. Even more impressive has been wage growth. On average, in California’s Creative Economy, per worker wages have increased a spectacular 40% since 2015.

“California is a global epicenter of the Creative Economy, and its industries are an engine of growth for the state and its workers,”said Patrick Adler, Research Manager at the Center for Forecasting, and one of the report’s authors.

But the top-line analysis comes with a critical caveat: Many different sectors, producing widely different kinds of products, make up the Creative Economy – and the findings indicate that both longer-term performance, and the more recent recovery from the pandemic, varies considerably from sector to sector with some soaring and others declining. “The state’s leaders ought to be thrilled with the long-term dynamism in Digital Publishing, and more concerned by declines in Entertainment and Creative Manufacturing,” said Adler.