Make a job, don’t take a job

Building the creative society, a Report by Barbara Gunnell and Martin Bright

“Make a job, don’t take a job” should become the rallying cry for the creative sector. The sector has traditionally had a far higher percentage of freelance workers – around 40 per cent of the total, compared with 12 per cent in the economy as a whole.

The creative industries are the key to the world’s economic recovery; nonetheless it has never been harder for school-leavers and graduates wishing to pursue a creative future to find work.

Much can be learned from Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s enterprise scheme.

The scheme was set up to reduce the number of unemployed people. It did not dictate what kind of businesses should be set up or interfere with the small details.

This led to the development of many creative industry start-ups. Some businesses failed; however, when the scheme ended in 1991, it had created more jobs in the creative sector than ever before.
The ‘Make a job, don’t take a job’ report is an attempt to provide some practical solutions to enhance employment in the creative economy sector.

Download a Report.