Gross Value Added and Employment Reach Record Highs
ResearchCultural and Creative Industries in Germany Developing Well
The economic figures for the cultural and creative industries in Germany developed largely positively in 2018. After experiencing a repeated increase, turnover, employment and gross value added all reached new record levels. Taking both self-employed workers and employees liable to social security contributions into account, overall employment in the German cultural and creative industries rose to a total of 1,195,035 individuals in 2018. Gross value added in the same year reached an estimated 100.5 billion euros. These are some of the findings of the 2019 Monitoring Report on the state of cultural and creative industries in Germany compiled on an annual basis by ZEW Mannheim and Fraunhofer ISI on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
The number of core employees working in the German cultural and creative industries – i.e. the total of both self-employed workers and employees subject to social insurance contributions – rose by 3.1 per cent compared with the previous year. This increase is primarily attributable to the increase in employees that are subject to social insurance contributions. “While the number of self-employed workers remained fairly constant, the number of employees liable to social security contributions increased by roughly 35,000 in 2018 compared to the previous year,” explains Dr. Daniel Erdsiek, a researcher in ZEW’s “Digital Economy” Department. With 3.9 per cent, the rise in the number of employees liable to social security contributions was significantly higher than corresponding employment growth in the overall economy (2.2 per cent). This increase to 938,400 employees marks a new record high for employees subject to social insurance contributions.
Better broadband coverage desired in rural areas
The gross value added of the culture and creative industries rose by around 2.9 per cent compared to 2017 and also reached a new high of 100.5 billion euros, thus experiencing a continuous increase over the long term. Since 2009, when the gross added value amounted to 71.8 billion euros, it has risen by 40 per cent, recording slightly higher growth than the gross domestic product in Germany in the same period (36.7 per cent). The gross value added of the culture and creative industries currently accounts for around 3.0 per cent of Germany’s GDP. With 32.7 billion euros, more than 29 per cent of the value added of the cultural and creative industries was generated in the software and games industry. Other important sub-markets are the advertising and media markets as well as the design industry, all of which recorded gross value added of more than ten billion euros.
In 2018, the cultural and creative industries generated an estimated turnover of 168.3 billion euros, exceeding previous year’s figure by around 1.9 per cent. Since 2009, turnover has risen by a total of 34 billion euros, an increase of more than 25 per cent. In 2018, the cultural and creative industries accounted for roughly 2.6 per cent of the total turnover of German companies. While turnover developed positively, the number of companies in the cultural and creative industries remained at the previous year’s level of approximately 256,600. Companies in the cultural and creative industries made up around 7.8 per cent of all companies in Germany in 2018.
This year’s monitoring report focuses on the importance of cultural and creative industries in rural areas. In this context, ZEW surveyed self-employed workers and companies in the cultural and creative industries in rural areas, asking them about various location-related factors. With regard to the infrastructure available in rural areas, the survey showed that companies in the cultural and creative industries are only moderately satisfied. Cultural and creative workers in rural areas see the greatest need in the supply of broadband internet, with a total of 58 per cent of companies rating the need for broadband expansion as high.
