Skills gaps and shortages in the creative industries: Employer perceptions and actions, UK, 2022
Source: gov.uk (2025-02-12)

Analysis of Employer Skills Survey data 2022: additional breakdowns for the creative industries.

Official Statistics in development on skills gaps and skills shortages in the creative industries for the year 2022, including:
- types of skills gaps and shortages, distinguishing between technical/practical skills, IT-related skills and soft/people skills
- employer perceptions of the causes of skills gaps
- employer perceptions of the impacts of skills gaps and shortages
- employer actions/responses to skills gaps and shortages
- profile of skills gaps and shortages by occupation
- list of occupations in highest demand by creative industries businesses
Headline findings
- the incidence of skills gaps and skill-shortage vacancies in the creative industries is smaller than in all businesses
- however, there are specific types of skills gaps and specific types of skills difficult to obtain in job applicants that are higher in creative industries than compared to all businesses
- the majority of businesses in the creative industries with a skills gap perceive these skills gaps as having an impact on their performance
- patterns of skills gaps and skill-shortage vacancies by occupation are distinctive in the creative industries.
About this release

This release is an Official Statistic in Development used to provide an overview of the skills issues in the creative industries.

This is the third publication in this Collection and covers the year 2022 (the most recently available data from the Department for Education’s Employer Skills Survey), and the whole of the UK (England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland). A previous statistical release published in May 2024 and based on the same data source for the same year provided an overview of the level of skills gaps and shortages in DCMS sectors, compared to All Sectors. In this ad-hoc statistical release we are publishing further breakdowns from the same data source on the nature and impact of skills issues in the creative industries.

Estimates are provided for creative industries and subsectors. Disclosure control is applied where sample sizes were too low.

Further information is available in the accompanying technical document along with details of methods and data limitations.

Release date

11th February 2025

Official statistics in development

These statistics are labelled as official statistics in development (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/policies/official-statistics-policies/official-statistics-in-development/). 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/). These statistics on skills gaps and shortages in the creative industries are an ad-hoc release designed to complement our previous statistical release and to give a deeper understanding of the skills issues in the creative industries, including types of skills gaps and shortages in the sector, impacts of skills issues, actions taken by employers in response, and distribution of skills gaps and shortages by occupation.

They are being published as official statistics in development because:
- these are new statistics which are still in development, and the analysis is limited to 2022
- we will be seeking user feedback on the usefulness of the statistics, the suitability of the methodology used and how clearly the statistics are communicated, including explanations about quality
- we will be exploring further improvements, including the feasibility of additional breakdowns
Following this user engagement we will make an assessment about the usefulness of these statistics for DCMS sectors in general, and whether these will become part of DCMS regular official statistics releases.

Feedback

DCMS aims to continuously improve the quality of estimates and better meet user needs. DCMS welcomes feedback on this release. Feedback should be sent to DCMS via email at xxx@xxx.xx.

Office for Statistics Regulation

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics (https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/) 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. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing xxx@xxx.xx or via the OSR website (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/).

Pre-release access

The accompanying pre-release access document lists 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

Responsible statistician: Anna Maccagnan

The work has been developed together with Dave O’Brien, UKRI Policy Fellow - DCMS Workforce, skills and diversity

For any queries or feedback, please contact xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx).