Careers in the arts, including arts administration careers, are increasingly abundant and lucrative, with the Return on Investment being high. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) recently reported that the arts contribute$763.6 billion to the U.S. economy (more than agriculture, transportation, or warehousing), and the arts employ 4.9 million workers across the country with earnings of more than $370 billion.
Over the most recent three-year period (2014-2016), the average annual growth rate of real value added by arts and culture was 4.16 percent, nearly double the 2.22 percent growth rate generated by the total U.S. economy.
Consumer spending on tickets to performing arts events rose from 0.12 percent of all U. S. personal consumer spending in 1998 to 0.26 percent in 2016.