Actors Resting On Their Laurels?

More actors spend time "resting" than working according to Skillset and a large proportion of them earn less than £6,000 a year from their acting skills, but a third of those surveyed had worked in television within the last year.

New research by the Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries, and actors union Equity, has found that 71% of performers worked outside of the performance industry for 28 weeks or more in the past year. This compares to the 18 weeks on average worked in the performance industry itself. Two in ten (22%) worked for 40 weeks or more in alternative industries.

Most actors (48%) who worked in the past year had an income of less than £6,000 from the performance industry with only 6% earning £30,000 or more.

The survey was carried out to create an accurate picture of the size and shape of the performance industry and to identify the skills development and training needs of the workforce.

The performance industry survey also found:

• Men (9%) were more likely than women (4%) to have earned £30,000 or more from work in the performance industry in the past year. At the other end of the scale, women (53%) were more likely than men (44%) to have earned less that £6,000.
• Men working in the performance industry earned an average of approximately £12,100 per year and women earned £8,900 per year.
• Two thirds (65%) of Equity members working in the UK performance industry in the past year were aged 35 or over, including 33% aged 50 or over.
• One in ten (8%) of those working in the UK performance industry in the past year reported having a disability.  This is higher than other areas of the audio visual industries. It is also higher than the proportion of the UK workforce who are disabled (5% in Labour Force Survey Historical Quarterly Supplement, summer 2005). All of these statistics relate to the Disability Discrimination Act definition of disability.
• A third (33%) of respondents had worked in television in the past year. Around one in five had worked in corporate production and events (19%) and film (18%).