The cost of the cost of living on creativity
In recent years, the rising cost of essentials such as housing, food and utilities has outpaced the growth in wages. The cost of living crisis is a pressing issue that is impacting the whole of the UK, and in light of UK Youth’s findings on how it has affected young people, we wanted to learn more about how it impacted the community of young people we work with.
Last month, we sent out a survey to our community of mentees with the intention of finding out how the cost of living crisis has impacted entry-level talent from breaking into the creative industries. The results highlighted that the creatives in our community are being heavily impacted by the rising costs in living and it is having a direct impact on their career opportunities and plans.
How our community said employers can support them
The rising costs mean that many young people are struggling to enter the industry as they aren’t able to afford to get the experience, or even work in entry-level roles and earn enough to live comfortably. Over three-quarters all our mentees who answered are having to take on additional jobs.
This can mean they have less time to focus on their main jobs, which can limit progression, or experience burnout from over work and stress.
When we asked mentees how employers can support them, hybrid working and support with travel expenses were among two of the most mentioned methods to help them avoid unnecessary spending to save money.
“Being over the age of 18 and having to take on more responsibilities, it is almost impossible to navigate without having to spend money. To then have to dedicate all your time to a job that doesn’t pay
just seems illogical in such a circumstance.”
“I originally wanted to work full-time in the creative industry. But this proved too difficult to access and even it it was achieved the hours and money were very unstable. ”
“I work four days a week so I can spend one day a week working on unpaid opportunities in the creative industries. But the cost of living crisis is making this seem more and more infeasible every day.”
“A lot of companies sometimes require you to briefs which takes a lot of time and effort and is again done in your “free” time however, I find most companies don’t even bother to give you good feedback in order for you to learn and develop. You are still required to do a lot outside in your free time, which ultimately costs.”
More needs to be done to support people from lower socioeconomic and working class backgrounds into the creative industries, to train junior talent and stop expectations that people can afford to work for free.
Investing in this talent through fair pay is key to increasing socioeconomic diversity and stop blocking and entire section of the talent pool from accessing creative industry jobs.
If you want to learn how you can make your workplace more accessible to young creatives during the cost of living crisis send us an email.
This survey was answered by 30 mentees from the Creative Mentor Network community.
