The creative sector is Chicago’s third-largest industry and accounts for nearly 213,000 jobs, according to a new economic impact study released Thursday by Arts Alliance Illinois, a statewide advocacy organization.
The group also released a statewide version of the study. Arts Alliance Illinois Executive Director Claire Rice said this is the most comprehensive report of this kind the group has conducted and that the findings provide arts organizations and advocates with concrete numbers that can be used to push for funding and policy changes across levels of government.
“Today marks an important milestone in how we understand the creative economy in Chicago and across Illinois,” Rice said during a press briefing Wednesday. “These reports help quantify what many have long known: Creativity is a major driver of jobs, economic activity and community vitality across our city and our state.”
The report states that only healthcare and professional, scientific and technical services make up larger workforces in Chicago. It also found that Chicago’s creative economy generates $50 billion in economic output, measured by the sales of goods and services, like concert ticket sales or broadcasting services.
“When we talk about supporting the creative economy, we’re not talking about a single industry,” said Claire Rice, executive director of Arts Alliance Illinois. “We’re talking about a broad network of workers, organizations and businesses that collectively power economic growth across our state.”
Courtesy of Arts Alliance Illinois
The report found that the sector’s direct jobs account for just over 11% of employment in the city, which the report says makes it a larger workforce than educational services, retail or manufacturing. Rice said there is not a single creative industry driving that number, but rather, it accounts for workers in arts education, design, audiovisual media, performing arts and beyond.
“When we talk about supporting the creative economy, we’re not talking about a single industry,” Rice said. “We’re talking about a broad network of workers, organizations and businesses that collectively power economic growth across our state.”
The report also found that for every $1 of output generated by the creative economy, another $0.38 is generated in local economic activity. And that the sector generates $5.7 billion in tax revenue annually, with $3.8 billion of that going toward federal taxes and $1.9 billion going toward state, county and local taxes.
Rice said the numbers in the study are intentionally conservative and don’t account for all of the sector’s gig workers or capture the total picture of what arts patrons spend while in town for an event. But, Rice said, the figures “establish a strong baseline for future research,” and additional studies will follow.
The study was funded by both private and public groups, including the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Illinois Arts Council, the Pritzker Foundation and World Business Chicago. The data was analyzed by the global consulting company Sound Diplomacy, and drew upon census figures, occupational employment and wage statistics, and IMPLAN data, a metric that measures economic impact by industry. Most data in the study comes from 2023, the most recent year available.
The report arrives at a time when funding for the arts has been cut or stagnant at the city and state levels. Nationally, President Donald Trump has clawed back grants given through the National Endowment for the Arts, closed the Kennedy Center for renovations after taking over control of the venue, and called for a sweeping review of Smithsonian exhibitions.
Together, it spells a precarious moment for the sector. Rice and other arts leaders say they hope this report will help to “right size city and state funding for the arts at a time of increased funding volatility for creative workers and organizations.”
“These findings strengthen the case for investing in creativity as economic development, workforce development and community development,” Rice said. “When people talk about the Chicago and Illinois economies, they talk about manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture and other key industries. Starting today, the creative sector belongs in that conversation.”
The Arts Alliance study arrives on the heels of the Chicago Arts Census, an artist-led survey released this spring, which found nearly two-thirds of arts workers in Chicago reported earning less than $40,000 annually. That fell below the city’s overall average income per capita for the years surveyed.
For its part, the new study found that Chicago’s creative economy has an average annual income of $106,226, but said that that figure is “driven by high-earning corporate and tech-integrated media sectors” and that many cultural workers, including artists and musicians, “earn drastically less.”
“The opportunity for change is clear to ensure that the people creating this value can share more fully in the prosperity that they help generate,” Rice said.
On the state level — which includes the Chicago figures — the report found that the creative economy accounts for more than 734,000 jobs, making it the state’s sixth-largest industry and generating more than $148 billion in economic output annually.
“I truly believe that good public policy depends on good data,” Nora Daley, board chair of the Illinois Arts Council, said at Wednesday’s briefing. “I think it’s been really important for us to have this data, because so much of the conversations are very anecdotal, and I feel that every industry is focused on the data and their input and their output, and as a sector we haven’t aligned ourselves in that same way, and I think we need to.”
“We are a huge sector. The fact that we’re larger than many of the sectors that people are constantly talking about investing in, I think this really provides us that leverage and opportunity to be at the table.”
Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.