A new report by economist Shamubeel Eaqub reveals New Zealand’s creative/creative tech sector* has a much bigger economic impact and is a much bigger employer than commonly perceived, worth $13 billion annually and supporting around 100,000 jobs.

With policy changes and smarter investment of existing funding, he says the sector could underpin New Zealand’s future economic growth, drive up productivity, boost global competitiveness and support higher values jobs.

Produced for Toi Mai Workforce Development Council, Eaqub says Skills in the creative sector shows just how big an economic impact our creative sector has on the country’s fortunes.

“The creative sector is actually one of our core economic pillars and a quiet success story for New Zealand, with movie and TV production, gaming, music recording and other parts contributing $13bn to GDP in 2022 – likely to be higher now, around 4% of our economy.

“The world loves our creative sector and is buying our creative outputs. It is our fourth largest commodity export at $3.6 bn in 2023, bigger than fruit, wine and seafood, sitting behind only dairy, meat and forestry.

“It is also a highly productive sector, with each worker producing $346,000 a year when adjusted for hours worked – slightly higher than agriculture and much more than the national average of $197,000.”

Eaqub says achieving its growth potential will depend on creative businesses having access to workers with the right skills.

“Currently there is a massive disconnect between the skills this sector needs and training, with 80% of people working in creative industries or occupations without creative qualifications, while 86% of people with creative qualifications aren’t in creative roles. This shows our training system isn’t useful for most people in creative work and suggests a more responsive skills system could provide a skill and productivity boost to the sector – and our wider economy.”

Toi Mai commissioned the research to shine a light on a sector that is often treated as a ‘nice to have’ rather than an important economic pillar, says Dr Claire Robinson, Te Tumu o Toi | Toi Mai Chief Executive.

“New Zealand is currently squandering its significant competitive advantage in the creative sector by fragmented thinking and broken policies – compare this with competitors such as Singapore, Australia and the UK that are deliberately positioning creative industries as core economic drivers and reaping tangible economic rewards.”

As it moves towards disestablishment at the end of the year, Toi Mai has released a companion document – Te Pūaotanga – The New Dawn – which sets out a pathway to transform the creative sector.

“It is a challenge to government, industry and business to act boldly to activate the creative sector to power New Zealand’s next stage of economic growth,” explains Dr Robinson.

“To put the size of the economic prize in perspective: while New Zealand’s primary industries are impressive, they can only feed 40 million people annually – compare that to the creative sector, which can reach 5.3 billion global consumers (66% of the world’s population) through digital screens and platforms.

“It’s not either or – we’re saying it’s let’s be more ambitious for New Zealand’s creative and creative tech sector.”

Among the key actions Toi Mai is calling for government, industry and business to implement are to:

• position creative industries as a strategic economic asset and catalyst for tourism, export, sustainability and tech growth – including appointing a Minister for Creative Industries as a senior role in the Executive
• develop a government-led national skills strategy that looks out 20–30 years
• redirect existing investments through smarter deployment of current resources; for example, 25% of international visitors engage with creative tourism (visiting film, event and experience), and a portion of the International Visitor Levy could be allocated to boost these experiences and develop new ones
• reform education and industry incentives with funding to reward skills-based outcomes that meet industry needs, rather than ‘qualifications’.

Click here to read the Skills in the creative sector and Te Pūaotanga – The New Dawn reports and for more information, including report summaries, and videos.

* Creative/creative tech sector includes people working in creative jobs and creative industries, including post-production services, motion picture and video production, gaming, music publishing, motion picture and video distribution, creative artists, musicians, writers, jewellery and silverware manufacturing, other publishing, music and other sound recording activities, internet publishing and broadcasting, book publishing, performing arts venue operation, performing arts operation, motion picture exhibition.