New statistics released by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH) have found that the creative industries have taken new leaps forward – highlighting their importance to Aotearoa.

The latest COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme (CRP) Impacts Report has been made public this morning – measuring the period of March 2021 through to March 2022 – using the previous year’s report as a measuring stick.

The reports are based on evaluating the economic impact of the Government’s historic, almost half a billion dollars investment in the arts and culture sector through the course of the pandemic. The data collected in the 72-page report tells an important trend – employment, business and GDP have all grown in 2022.

Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni additionally points out that the employment growth numbers are even more impressive, given there had been a forecasted loss of nearly 11,000 jobs in the sector.

“Supported by our Government’s investment, these employment and business results contributed $12.9 billion to our economy’s GDP, a growth of 10.6% compared to 5.3% for the total economy.

“We know the economy has grown strongly and is showing its resilience with the arts and culture sector playing its role to support our wider economic recovery.

“Our Government’s investment has and will continue to see more jobs created. High-level modelling suggests that we will see nearly 1,000 more jobs for the sector and over 1,600 more jobs in the wider economy – these are the flow-on effects on employment when the arts and creative sectors are supported to flourish and thrive.

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