The Bureau of Economic Analysis, part of the US Dept. of Commerce, released economic data this morning detailing the value of cultural production and supporting industries to the US economy.
Output for all ACPSA commodities was $1.1 trillion in 2012. The core ACPSA commodities contributed $571.1 billion and the supporting ACPSA commodities contributed $561.2 billion. The primary contributor to the core ACPSA output was advertising with an output of $239.8 billion; the primary contributor to the supporting ACPSA output was broadcasting with an output of $118.4 billion.
That trillion dollars mostly went to the 4.7m workers in the broadly defined culture industries which includes advertising, publishing and media. Deeper in the release, one can see the more than 165,000 jobs in Museums and Fine Art Education, the primary employers in the fine art sector.
BEA Art and Cultural Production Press Release