The entertainment and creative cluster and Ontario's economy
Creative industries are among the most strategically important for industrially advanced economies. They are comparable to major sectors such as tourism, automotive, energy and information and communication technologies as economic drivers in their own right. Among their other benefits, they are:
- Organizations that have a pivotal impact on a region's quality of life and the success of other industries
- An important source of genuinely innovative ideas
- Significant active adopters and users of technology, particularly information and communication technologies, providing important inspiration for the development of new technologies by technology producers and developers.
At a glance (figures from 2009)
Ontario's entertainment and creative cluster industries play an important role in the province's knowledge-based economy. They are a source of high wages and skilled employment — including many jobs among the self-employed and in small to medium-sized enterprises.
- Industry revenues: More than $15 billion
- Total employment: 199,142 people
- Gross value: More than $12 billion (just under three percent of our total economy)
- Average annual employment growth 2000-2009: 3.5 percent (twice as fast as the Ontario average)
- Size of North American and global markets for entertainment and media products: $463 billion (North America), $1.35 trillion (global)
