Creative industries worth £146k a minute to UK economy

The creative industries are worth £146,000 a minute to the UK economy, according to new government figures.

A report into economic estimates claims that the overall sector grew by almost ten per cent in 2013, three times that of the wider UK economy. In total it is now said to be worth £76.9 billion per year.

The report also stated the value of services exported by the creative industries was £17.3 billion in 2012, making up 8.8 per cent of total UK service exports.

The creative industries employ just over 1.7m people, consistently rising year-on-year from the 1.43m jobs reported in 2009. Despite the number of jobs continuing to increase, employment growth in the sector has slowed from 8.6 per cent in 2012 to 1.4 per cent in 2013. This is below the rate of growth for the wider economy, which was at 1.6 per cent.

“It is fantastic to see the creative industries reaching an all-time high, and the trend is for growth,” said UKIE CEO Jo Twist.

“The game industry is an economic and creative powerhouse and we expect to see this growth continue as the new tax breaks start to take effect.”