Economic Estimates: Employment January 2024 to December 2024 for DCMS Sectors
Source: gov.uk (2025-08-14)

Official Statistics in development used to provide an estimate of the contribution of DCMS Sectors to the UK economy, measured by employment.

About

These economic estimates are used to provide an estimate of the contribution of DCMS sectors to the UK economy, measured by employment (number of filled jobs). These estimates are calculated based on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS).

Notice on Accreditation:

The statistics in this series (including this release) will be classed as official statistics in development until further review. On 4 August 2025, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) temporarily suspended the accreditation (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/ed-humpherson-to-sarah-alloway-lasher-suspension-of-official-statistics-accreditation/) from this employment series, at our request (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/sarah-alloway-lasher-to-ed-humpherson-suspension-of-official-statistics-accreditation/), following ONS reporting concerns (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/michael-keoghan-to-siobhan-tuohy-smith-request-to-suspend-aps-accreditation/) with the quality of estimates for smaller segments of the APS population, which the DCMS Sector Economic Estimates: Employment series depends on.

Due to ongoing challenges with response rates, response levels and weighting, the accreditation of ONS statistics based on Annual Population Survey (APS) was temporarily suspended (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/michael-keoghan-to-siobhan-tuohy-smith-request-to-suspend-aps-accreditation/) on 9 October 2024. Because of the increased volatility of both Labour Force Survey (LFS) and APS estimates, the ONS advises that estimates produced using these datasets should be treated with additional caution. ONS statistics based on both the APS and LFS will be considered official statistics in development until further review.

Following the ONS reporting concerns regarding the quality of the APS estimates, particularly for smaller segments of the population, we conducted analysis to understand the quality of DCMS employment estimates. Consequently, we have concerns regarding increased volatility due to low APS sample sizes and its impact on the reliability and quality of our estimates. The statistics in this series will be classified as official statistics in development until further review. Previous releases in the series have been classified as accredited official statistics, meaning that they have been independently assessed by the OSR as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Content

DCMS Sectors

These statistics cover the contributions of the following DCMS sectors to the UK economy;
- civil society
- creative industries
- cultural sector
- gambling
- sport
- tourism
Tourism estimates are available up to 2023 only due to data availability. We have made some revisions to employment estimates for the tourism sector and DCMS sectors overall for the years 2016 to 2019, following revisions made by the ONS to the underlying Tourism Satellite Account (https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/satelliteaccounts/datasets/uktourismsatelliteaccounttsatables) data.

The release also includes estimates for the audio visual sector, computer games sector and art and antiques market.

Users should note that there is overlap between DCMS sector definitions. In particular, several cultural sector industries are simultaneously creative industries.

A definition for each sector is available in the tables published alongside this release. Further information on all these sectors is available in the associated technical report along with details of methods and data limitations.

Alongside these calendar year employment estimates, we would usually publish APS earnings estimates to provide detailed demographic information about earnings in DCMS sectors. Due to ongoing challenges with the quality of APS data, we have not published these estimates in this release. We will explore producing these estimates in future as the quality of APS data improves.

Headline findings

Estimates of the number of filled jobs in the included DCMS sectors in 2024 show that:
- There were 4.0 million total filled jobs in the included DCMS sectors in 2024, representing 11.7% of UK total filled jobs. Tourism data is available up to 2023 and provisional estimates show that there were 4.9 million filled jobs in DCMS sectors overall (incl tourism) in 2023, 14.4% of UK total filled jobs.
- Employment in the included DCMS sectors (excluding tourism) grew by 11.1% compared to pre-pandemic levels (2019), faster than growth for the UK overall at 1.5%.
- Compared to 2023, there were no statistically significant changes in the included DCMS sectors overall or individually in 2024.
- Within the included DCMS sectors, 24.4% of filled jobs were in London, a higher proportion then the UK economy overall, of which 15.9% were in London.
Call for feedback

We are always interested in receiving feedback on our statistics. We are particularly interested in how useful our rolling quarterly employment statistics are, and how statistics for non-calendar year quarterly periods are used in comparison to our calendar year statistics. If you have any feedback, please contact us directly by emailing xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx).

Released

First published on 14th August 2025.

Official Statistics in Development

On 4 August 2025, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) temporarily suspended the accreditation (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/ed-humpherson-to-sarah-alloway-lasher-suspension-of-official-statistics-accreditation/) from this employment series, at our request (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/sarah-alloway-lasher-to-ed-humpherson-suspension-of-official-statistics-accreditation/), following ONS reporting concerns (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/michael-keoghan-to-siobhan-tuohy-smith-request-to-suspend-aps-accreditation/) with the quality of estimates for smaller segments of the APS population, which the DCMS Sector Economic Estimates: Employment series depends on. The statistics in this series will be classified as official statistics in development (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/policies/official-statistics-policies/official-statistics-in-development/), in line with ONS’s decision to consider their APS based labour market statistics as official statistics in development, until further review.

Official statistics in development are official statistics that are undergoing development and will be tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics (https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/the-code/). These statistics are being published as official statistics due to concerns about the quality of estimates for smaller segments of the APS population, which the DCMS Sector Economic Estimates: Employment series depends on.

In addition to classifying these estimates as official statistics in development until further review, in the data tables we have included data on:
- coefficients of variation to indicate the level of statistical robustness for each employment estimate for 2024.
- confidence intervals at the 95% confidence level to indicate the amount of uncertainty around each employment estimate for 2024.
- confidence intervals at the 95% confidence level for total number of filled jobs in DCMS sectors (excluding tourism) for 2011 to 2024 to enable users to compare whether changes over time are statistically significant.
Office for Statistics Regulation

Our statistical practice is regulated by the OSR. OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics (https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/the-code/) that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx). Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx) or via the OSR website (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/).

Pre-release access

A document is provided that contains a list of ministers and officials who have received privileged early access to this release. In line with best practice, the list has been kept to a minimum and those given access for briefing purposes had a maximum of 24 hours.

Contact

The responsible analyst for this release is Nicholas Hamilton Wu.

For further details about the estimates, or to be added to a distribution list for future updates, please email us at xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx).

Published 14 August 2025