The UK performers industry is covered by Skillset and the Creative and Cultural Skills Sector Skills Councils.  Further information on arts and entertainment is available on the NGRF website.

The survey of the industry is based on 8,260 people of which 6,849 have worked in the UK performance industry in the last year.

Nearly half of those working in the UK performance industry earned less than £6,000 from the profession in the last year.  Only 6% or workers in the industry have earnings of £30,000 or more.  Men (9%) were more likely than women (4%) to have earned £30,000 or more from work in the industry in the past year.

Most of the workforce were employed outside the performance industry than within it.  71% of the workforce had worked outside of the performance industry for 28 weeks or more in the past year.  22% had worked for 40 weeks or more in alternative industries. 

The majority of the workforce are in England (90%) of which 41% are in London and 15% in the South East.  National, 4% of the workforce are in Wales, 5% in Scotland and 1% in Northern Ireland.  This regional distribution is broadly similar to the audio visual industries as a whole.

A high proportion of the workforce have a qualification (81%), but this figure would be higher if industry recognised qualifications had been included (such as drama school diplomas).  Industry recognised qualifications are highly regarded.

47% of the workforce recognise a current training need, particularly to keep up-to-date or improve current work.  The most common areas of training need are: acting; audition technique/acquiring work; voice/accent coaching; singing; IT skills; languages; and business skills.

 Source: Skillset 2005f and Skillset website 2006

For more information on performers go to the Skillset website.  Click here for demographic data on the performers workforce.  For more data on the industry see:

Performer industry workforce by main role, 2005