Economic Estimates: Employment in DCMS sectors and digital sector, July 2022 to June 2023
Source: gov.uk (2025-04-09)

National Statistics used to provide an estimate of the contribution of DCMS sectors and digital sector to the UK economy, measured by employment.

Revision note:

April 2025 DCMS and digital sector July 2020 to June 2023 employment data tables including the full set of additional breakdowns for all years have been re-published.

November 2024 We have made some small revisions to both the DCMS and digital July 2021 to June 2023 data tables, due to the identification of an error. For DCMS sectors, July 2022 to June 2023 data tables have been re-published and for July 2021 to June 2022, headline data at sector-level has been re-published.

For Digital sectors, the July 2022 to June 2023 table has been re-published for Digital and Telecoms sectors and total filled jobs for digital subsectors. For July 2021 to June 2022, headline data has been published for the Digital and Telecoms sectors. The full set of additional breakdowns for these tables will be re-published in due course.

05 March 2024, a revision was made to the employed and self employed breakdowns in tables 2 and 3 of the Economic Estimates: Employment in DCMS sectors, July 2021 to June 2023 file. An error was identified with the employed and self-employed breakdowns in the previous tables for the nationality, sex, and age demographics. The total number of filled jobs was unintentionally provided for these breakdowns instead of values specifically for employed and self-employed. This has now been corrected.

The tables for the digital sectors are not affected by this change.

About

These Economic Estimates are used to provide an estimate of the contribution of DCMS sectors, and separately the digital sector, 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).

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 is not included as the data is not yet available. The release also includes estimates for the audio visual sector and computer games sector.

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.

Headline findings:

Between July 2022 to June 2023, there were 4.0 million total filled jobs in the included DCMS sectors, an increase of 408,000 (11.3%) since pre-pandemic (2019) and 113,000 (2.9%) since the previous equivalent 12-month period.

Since pre-pandemic (2019), driving the growth in included DCMS sector employment was the creative industries (17.8% increase). Over this period, employment also grew in the civil society sector (5.4% increase) and cultural sector (3.9% increase), however, remained below 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels in the sports sector (1.9% decrease) and gambling sector (1.1% decrease).

Digital sector:

These statistics also cover the contributions of the following digital sectors to the UK economy

digital sector

Of which: telecoms

Users should note that the telecoms sector sits wholly within the digital sector.

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.

Headline findings:

Between July 2022 and June 2023, there were approximately 1.9 million filled jobs in the digital sector, an increase of 358,000 (23.0%) since the 2019 calendar year (pre-pandemic) and 85,000 (4.7%) since the previous equivalent 12-month period.

Released

First published on 14 December 2023. Update to DCMS tables published on 05 March 2024.

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.

Office for Statistics Regulation

These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in June 2019. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics (https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/) and should be labelled accredited official statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the OSR. OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics 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/).

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).