The Role of Art & Antique Dealers An Added Value
than regular salaries) or working with external consultants and assistants on an ad hoc basis to cut costs and remain flexible enough to deal with market conditions.
Despite being smaller businesses on average than their auction counterparts, dealers are responsible for over 70% of the 2 million jobs directly generated by the art trade. The art market makes a significant contribution to the economies in which it operates in terms of the employment and skills that it generates. The dealer sector especially is made up of small, knowledge-based businesses that directly employ in the region of 1.4 million highly educated individuals.
Some key facts from the survey about dealer employment include:
• Employment status: According to the survey, the dealer sector is similar to the workforce overall, with 76% of those employed in this sector working full-time, and 24% in part- time or temporary positions. In the top tier auction houses by comparison, full-time work is more common at 87% in 2010, but not so for the second tier houses, where the global average was 62%. Cultural workers generally are often engaged in more flexible working arrangements: in Europe for example, 42% of cultural workers are in part-time or temporary contracts versus 31% of the general labour force. In other words, the rate of full-time employment in the dealer sector is relatively high compared to the other cultural sectors.
• Education: Cultural workers tend to be more highly educated than the wider labour force. In Europe, 48% of workers in this sector have third level or university education versus 26% of the general labour force (and 35% in the US). Art and antique dealers are no exception and are, on average, better educated than the general labour force with 68% with university or third level degrees. In the top tier auction houses by comparison, the share of employees with a university education averaged 77%, and in the second tier houses this was lower at 57%.
• Gender balance: In the cultural sector generally in Europe, the gender balance reflects that of total employment in Europe with a rate of 46% female labour force participation. This is almost identical to other major economies such as the US, which had a female participation rate of 46.5%. The art trade does display some difference between sectors: the dealer sector is more male dominated with an average gender breakdown on 56% male and 44% female; the top-tier auction sector is balanced in favour of female participation with an average female share of employment of 56%; and the second-tier houses are more balanced at 51% male to 50% female.
The art market also generates further jobs and revenues through its expenditure in a number of related industries and support services. It is estimated in 2010 that the art trade spent close
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