Contents
- Performing arts employment statistics: U.S. workforce totals
- Performing arts employment statistics: Companies, promoters, and artist businesses
- Performing arts employment statistics: Pandemic disruption and recovery
- Performing arts employment statistics: Artist worker classifications
- Performing arts employment statistics: Artist employment by industry
- Performing arts employment statistics: BLS occupations and workforce trends
- Sources
Performing arts employment statistics: U.S. workforce totals
U.S. performing arts employment statistics depend on what the measure counts. The National Endowment for the Arts’ Measuring the Arts Indicator C.2 uses an Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACPSA) industry cluster. It counts workers producing arts- and culture-related goods and services in industries grouped as performing arts. In that series, the cluster recorded 232 thousand workers in 2019, 149 thousand in 2020, and 243 thousand in 2023. Those are reported in thousands of workers; they are not job counts from the separate industry table discussed below. Source: NEA, Indicator C.2, Figure C2-1 and page 2
| Year | ACPSA performing arts cluster workers (thousands) |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 232 |
| 2020 | 149 |
| 2023 | 243 |
The sequence shows a lower cluster count in 2020 than in 2019 and a higher count in 2023 than in either listed year. The report separately states that the performing arts sector’s worker count increased by 4 to 5% between 2019 and 2023. That percentage is the report’s stated comparison; it should not be recomputed from the rounded figures shown in the table. The cluster combines multiple industries, so it does not represent only stage performers or only performing arts companies. Source: NEA, Indicator C.2, Figure C2-1 and page 4
Performing arts employment statistics: Companies, promoters, and artist businesses
The BEA’s ACPSA table reports employment by arts and cultural production industry in thousands of jobs. Its rows distinguish performing arts companies, promoters of performing arts and similar events, agents and managers for artists, and independent artists, writers, and performers. The values below reproduce the table’s printed units and numbers. Source: BEA, Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, Table 4
| Industry (thousands of jobs) | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Performing arts companies | 21,169 | 21,232 | 28,064 | 33,809 |
| Promoters of performing arts and similar events | 22,544 | 32,395 | 50,992 | 60,114 |
| Agents/managers for artists | 4,616 | 6,568 | 7,719 | 8,308 |
| Independent artists, writers, and performers | 41,956 | 58,614 | 71,133 | 62,513 |
These series do not move in lockstep. The printed estimates for performing arts companies, promoters, and agents/managers rise across the four displayed years. The independent artists, writers, and performers row rises through 2022 and is lower in 2023 than in 2022. Because the table unit is thousands of jobs, these entries should not be read as individual people or silently converted to headcounts. The BEA industry rows also differ from the NEA cluster count: they are estimates for named industries, while the cluster groups several industries under one arts-sector label. Source: BEA, Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, Table 4
The difference matters for interpretation. A business-industry measure can include the jobs attached to an industry, while an artist-focused measure can count people by occupation, including people seeking work in that occupation. Those scopes answer different questions. The table is useful for comparing its four industry rows over time, but its values should not be added to the NEA cluster figures or treated as a direct substitute for artist counts. Source: BEA, Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, Table 4
Performing arts employment statistics: Pandemic disruption and recovery
The NEA’s broader arts and cultural industries measure gives context for the pandemic-era change. Across those industries—not the performing arts cluster alone—the report records 5,392,000 workers in 2019 and 4,971,000 in 2020, describing the decline as 8%. In 2023, approximately 5,395,000 U.S. residents were employed in arts and cultural industries. These overall totals cover a wider range of cultural work than performing arts. Source: NEA, Indicator C.2, pages 2–3
The performing arts cluster’s own reported count moved from 232 thousand workers in 2019 to 149 thousand in 2020, then to 243 thousand in 2023. The NEA reports a 4 to 5% increase for the cluster between 2019 and 2023. Read together, the series show a sharp 2020 contraction followed by a 2023 count above the listed 2019 count, while the report’s stated percentage comparison remains the appropriate measure of the change. Source: NEA, Indicator C.2, Figure C2-1 and pages 2, 4
The BEA’s separate industry table shows different patterns across specific business categories from 2020 through 2023. For example, the performing arts companies row is 21,169 thousand jobs in 2020 and 33,809 thousand in 2023; the promoters row is 22,544 thousand and 60,114 thousand in those same years. These are the table’s printed employment estimates, not evidence about why the values changed. The data establish the timing and reported levels; they do not identify causes. Source: BEA, Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, Table 4
Performing arts employment statistics: Artist worker classifications
Artist employment is not limited to conventional payroll positions. In the NEA’s 2022 analysis of American Community Survey (ACS) artists in the labor force, 54% worked for private, for-profit companies or organizations, 33% were self-employed, and approximately 8% worked for private nonprofit organizations. For employed respondents, class-of-worker information refers to their job in the previous week. Source: NEA, Indicator C.3, page 2
The report compares the private for-profit share for artists with the total labor force: 54% for artists versus 66% for the total labor force, a reported difference of 12 percentage points. It also gives self-employment shares for photographers (59%), entertainers (58%), and fine artists, art directors, and animators (58%) in 2022. The occupational category in the last figure is a combined group as reported, rather than fine artists alone. Source: NEA, Indicator C.3, pages 2 and 4
For performing arts occupations, the report says 60% of actors worked for private for-profit businesses or organizations; the corresponding share was 58% for producers and directors, and 50% for dancers and choreographers. Government represented a small share in the listed categories: 2% of actors, 3% of musicians, music directors, and composers, and approximately 6% of producers and directors worked for government in 2022. These are class-of-worker shares within the named artist occupations, not shares of all arts-industry jobs. Source: NEA, Indicator C.3, page 4
Self-employment was 31% of artists in 2019 and 33% in 2022, according to the same report. This comparison describes the artist population and period specified by the ACS analysis. It does not say that every performing artist is self-employed, nor does it imply that a self-employed artist has no ties to companies, venues, or other organizations. Source: NEA, Indicator C.3, page 4
Performing arts employment statistics: Artist employment by industry
Industry counts offer another view: they identify where artists work, rather than the full workforce of each industry. In 2022, performing arts companies employed 85 thousand artists, while the independent artists, writers, and performers industry employed about 353 thousand artists. The NEA’s figure presents these as numbers in thousands. Its artist labor-force definition includes employed people and unemployed people seeking work in an artist occupation, so the industry figures belong to that report’s artist-centered framework. Source: NEA, Indicator C.3, Figure C3-5 and page 9
The report also measures artists as a share of each industry’s workers. Artists made up 50% of the performing arts companies workforce in 2022 and 84% of workers in the independent artists, writers, and performers industry. The denominators differ: one percentage describes the composition of the performing arts companies workforce, and the other describes the independent artist business category. Neither percentage is an artist count. Source: NEA, Indicator C.3, page 10
Together, the two measures show why it helps to keep the question explicit. “How many artists are employed in an industry?” and “What share of an industry’s workers are artists?” are not interchangeable. The first is an artist count by industry; the second is a workforce proportion. Similarly, these ACS figures should not be equated with BEA jobs in thousands or the broader NEA ACPSA cluster totals. Each dataset organizes employment around a different unit and classification. Source: NEA, Indicator C.3, pages 9–10
Performing arts employment statistics: BLS occupations and workforce trends
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ NAICS 711 series covers performing arts, spectator sports, and related industries. Its seasonally adjusted employment measure was 589.8 thousand in August 2026 and 592.9 thousand in October 2026; the October figure is preliminary. Because spectator sports are included, these are not performing-arts-only totals. Source: BLS, Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries, Workforce Statistics
The same BLS industry page reports 2025 employment by occupation within NAICS 711: 21,540 musicians and singers, 16,380 producers and directors, and 32,640 ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers. These occupation counts describe workers employed in the broad NAICS 711 subsector, which includes spectator sports, rather than all U.S. workers in those occupations. Source: BLS, Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries, Employment by Occupation
A separate BLS series tracks private-industry promoters of performing arts, sports, and similar events using annual-average employment. The 2024 average was 182,307, preliminary, compared with 66,585 in 2001. BLS states that the 2024 average was 174% higher than the 2001 average. The QCEW-based series covers private-industry jobs at establishments reporting under unemployment insurance and excludes self-employment, so its scope is narrower than an artist labor-force measure. Source: BLS, “Event promoters employment up 174 percent since 2001”
Taken together, the measures provide several useful lenses: a performing arts cluster count, business-industry job estimates, artists classified by employer type, artist counts by industry, and BLS employment for a subsector that includes spectator sports. Their values are most informative when paired with their units, dates, and population definitions. The last BLS observations are dated 2026, while the other cited series range from 2019 through 2025; none should be presented as a universal or interchangeable current headcount.
Sources
- Measuring the Arts: Indicator C.2, Which Industries Employ Artists and Other Cultural Workers? (2025)
- Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, U.S. and States, 2023
- Measuring the Arts: Indicator C.3, How Many Artists and Other Cultural Workers are Employed in Arts Organizations and Businesses? (2025)
- Employment and output by industry
- Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries: NAICS 711
- Event promoters employment up 174 percent since 2001