Otis College Launches Interactive Creative Economy Dashboard with Latest Otis College Report on the Creative Economy

The dashboard will be complemented by a series of shorter, focused reports on California's creative economy. 

Otis College of Art and Design released new research and an interactive dashboard as part of its Otis College Report on the Creative Economy. Hosted at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, the launch event included a presentation of findings by Westwood Economics & Planning Associates and a panel discussion on strengthening the Los Angeles region’s position as a global hub of the creative economy. 

Otis College President Charles Hirschhorn opened the event and introduced the panelists, which included Kenny Gravillis, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Gravillis Inc.; Amy Homma, Chief Audience Officer, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures; Kristin Sakoda, Director, Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and Jim Shepherd, Director, Global Creator Partnerships, Snap Inc. Degen Pener, Deputy Editor of The Hollywood Reporter, moderated the discussion. 

When the Otis College Report on the Creative Economy was first introduced in 2007, it highlighted the impact of creative industries in Los Angeles; it was later expanded to include statewide data across eight regions of California and analysis of the state’s overall creative economy. In the past year, Otis College has shifted gears with new partner Westwood Economics, and released three shorter, more focused reports, marking a break from its traditional format, which was a 300-page-plus printed report released annually. The data from the previous reports, as well as new data points, are now compiled into a digital dashboard that tracks the performance of the creative economy across California in real time, automatically updating as soon as new data become available. 

The dashboard and topical reports replace the annual report format, allowing users to take the temperature of the creative economy and its component parts throughout the year. The new series of timely reports addressing specific topics or sectors within the creative economy will be released throughout a given year. This new format provides timelier data and makes it more readily available to a wider audience.

The first two reports, released in late 2023 and early 2024, focused on the entertainment sector in response to recent strikes and the changing greater entertainment landscape in Los Angeles. Key findings of the third report, which reviews important changes in California’s creative economy through the third quarter of 2023, include: 

• The number of workers employed by California’s creative economy fell by 70,840 in 2023, an 8% reduction. Nationally, employment in the creative economy contracted by 4%. California sustained greater losses than the rest of the nation because it has a much higher presence of Film,TV, and Sound workers.

• While the Film, TV, and Sound sectors accounted for 59% of these lost jobs, as production cuts and the Hollywood strikes took their toll, only Fine and Performing Arts—one of the nine subsectors that comprise the creative economy—saw job increases in 2023, with museums and art schools expanding employment. 

• As the creative economy shed jobs during 2023, the unemployment rate increased for creative economy workers in the state, jumping from 4% to 5.1%.

• Despite these job losses, California remains the national leader in the creative economy, which also is a source of well-paying jobs in the state: The average salary paid to creative workers in California in 2023, $191,700, was more than twice the economy-wide average.

“The Otis College Report on the Creative Economy continues to evolve and provide essential data and analysis of this indispensable part of California’s economy,” said Charles Hirschhorn, President of Otis College. “As Los Angeles’s first professional art and design college, it is vital that we understand the creative sectors that will employ our graduates so that we may continue empowering them to succeed and shape the world.”

Download the latest report and access the new dashboard

Between the dashboard and these focused studies, the Otis College Report on the Creative Economy continues to provide data and analysis for educators and scholars, policymakers and grantmakers, businesses, cultural institutions, and artists. 

Presenting support for the Otis College Report on the Creative Economy and dashboard is provided by Snap Foundation. The report is also made possible through the support of the Getty Foundation, The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Marsh, Gallagher, and City National Bank, as well as media partner The Hollywood Reporter. 

Main image: Photograph by Sarah Golonka/Otis College of Art and Design.

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