The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that, in 2002, job market conditions weakened for the total civilian work force and for most workers in artist occupations. Unemployment among workers in artist occupations reached 116,000 in 2002, while the unemployment rate for artists hit 5.5 percent, up from 3.5 percent in 2000.

This note reports the state location of workers in 11 detailed artist occupations. It examines the state concentration of artists as a share of the total civilian labor force, and state patterns in the location of individual artist occupations.

Note #105 uses multiyear averages from the American Community Survey (2005-2009) to enumerate the nation’s artists and to describe their demographic traits, work patterns, and nationwide concentration. The Note also explores links between individual artist occupations and specific industries, and it reports occupational and industry patterns for workers who obtained arts-related degrees in college. Finally, the Note identifies state and metropolitan-level concentrations of employment within arts industries.

Census data compared with the 1976 Survey of Income and Education to reveal the changes in the size and composition of America’s artist population during the 1970s.

Artists are facing sharp increases in unemployment. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the artist unemployment rate reached 6.0 percent for a total of 129,000 unemployed artists.

An addendum to Research Note #97, which examines figures from 2009 as well as 2008 and the impact of the second year of the recession on artists.

This note provides estimates based on the 1990 Census of Population for artist labor forces in the 30 metropolitan areas with the largest number of artists. The note also provides information on the 10 metropolitan areas with the highest concentration of artists in their labor forces.