Regardless of which industry you're working in, it's always good to have a feel about how market trends are doing. The information will help you answer important career questions to better evaluate your worth and how your employer measures up against others.
Coroflot is a company that has invested its time in garnering information about the creative industry.
They've put together the information they have gathered in very mentally-digestible infographics that address the following questions:
1] Where are creative professionals working?
2] What are creative professionals earning?
3] Where do creative professionals derive their benefits from?
4] Which graduates earn more? (Statistics aggregating US University respondents only)
5] How are creative professionals getting their jobs?
6] Do advanced degrees pay-off, if you're working in the creative industry?
Where Are They Working?
Briefly speaking, creative professionals are everywhere, with a majority coming from the United States (58% of the world's countries were covered in their study). The image above shows 10 of the most represented cities and countries.
Interestingly, American west coast cities San Francisco and Portland have caught up and surpassed long-standing creative industry leaders, New York City and Boston.
What Are They Earning?
The above are the seven most represented job titles from all respondents along with their salary ranges and average freelance rates (US$). As expected, Art Directors and Creative Directors enjoy the higher salary ranges, compared to “broader titles” Graphic Designer, Architect and Fashion Designer.
Where Do They Get Benefits?
Respondents revealed that medical benefits are offered more often than we expected at smaller companies. Nearly half reported receiving them at companies with 15 or fewer employees, and nearly three out of four reported the same at companies with 16 to 50 employees.
Which Graduates Earn More?
The image above represents the 10 most represented U.S. colleges and universities that our survey respondents attended.
How Are They Getting Their Jobs?
Personal referral came in as the most common source, followed by job boards. It was also revealed in the study that creative professionals tend to find jobs “through industry events and Meetups” as often as they do through social networking sites for professionals, like LinkedIn. Notedly, recruitment service came in as the third most prevalent source of employment.
Do Advanced Degrees Pay Off?
An advanced degree may not garner you a higher salary. According to each group’s salary range, those with a high school diploma earned more at the median and 75th percentile than those who acquired a bachelor’s degree.
Nevertheless,a master’s degree (or anything higher) begets higher earnings across the board.
Coroflot emphasizes that this information should not discourage anyone from giving up education (especially if you're on it already); rather, this data represents a “positive earning outlook for those who are unable to get an advanced degree.”
[via Coroflot.com]