> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Author:: [[Susan Luckman]] > Reference:: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10304312.2023.2220996 > Date:: 2023 > Tags:: #warp #Australia > WeftLinks:: [[Economic value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Craft makes an important contribution to the economy]] [[Claim - Craft provides a livelihood with dignity through market access]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Susan Luckman provides statistics about the contribution of the craft economy, which is more than just building and construction. ### Highlights Drawing upon over a decade of research into craft and craft skills in Australia, this article identifies the skills challenges growing within the Australian making ecosystem. Bringing together qualitative and quantitative research findings, it finds that one sector, building and construction, dominates the occupational landscape, at the expense of a richer, more diverse and future-ready skills base key building and construction occupations with large overall employment numbers, the final percentage of workers counted as being engaged in skilled craft work was bricklayer 6%, cabinetmaker 16%, carpenter 29%, carpenter and joiner 22%, fibrous plasterer 8%, glazier 15%, and joiner 19 Overall, employing this methodology, we found that ==in 2016 Australia’s craft economy employed 119,843 people== (1.1% of the total labour force as recorded in the census) and ==generated $17.2 billion gross value added (GVA)== (1.0% of the total) as measured by worker income. To contextualize this relationally, Australia’s craft economy is similar in size and impact to the sports economy, which in 2016–17 supported 128,000 jobs and contributed $14.5 billion to gross domestic product The national making ecology is also disproportionately skewed towards building and construction, at the expense of a richer, more diverse craft skills base government policy frameworks have tended to privilege highly visible and numerically significant industrial sectors, at the expense of small to medium enterprises, as well as sole traders, who make up the majority of skilled craft workers Craft and design have been with us for millennia and will continue to be so into the future. Making things is central to human survival and pleasure, to cultural practice for all peoples.