The Impact of Covid-19 on Creative Freelancers in the UK – Report summary

With the impacts of Covid-19 The Creative Industries (CIs) are projecting a combined £77bn turnover loss over the course of 2020 compared to 2019 (-31%). This is expected to translate into a Gross Value Added (GVA) shortfall of £29bn in 2020 compared to 2019 (-26%), over half of which is in London. Creative workers that power this industry have become a particularly  vulnerable and precarious sector of the workforce. As seen in the report by Oxford Economics (2020), the effects of Covid-19 have already created severe impacts on their income. Not only has turnover dropped but so has charitable contributions and sponsorships (essential stakeholders to many creatives) culminating a risk of creating irreparable socio-economic damage to this more fragile part of the sector.

In light of this, Wishu carried out a survey to understand how Covid-19 has impacted the local creative communities of the UK (majority are London based).  More than 1,000 UK Creative Freelancers working in the following sectors: Photography & Film (photographers, videographers, and editors), Beauty (makeup artists), Fashion (stylists), Art & Design (Illustrators and Designers) took part in the research survey. Below you can find the key results from the survey research based on 1,000 survey participants. Participants were privately invited to take part in the survey research from two communities (The-Dots and Wishu).

Download the report summary (here) for the findings