Stereotypically, creative people are considered rather artsy and relegated to peripheral jobs. However, writers like Richard Florida, Daniel H. Pink, and Seth Godin see creative people essential in a broad spectrum of occupations.
Richard Florida writes an essay in The Atlantic:
"More than 35 million people are currently employed in creative class work in fields like science, technology, and engineering; business, finance, and management; law, health care, and education; and arts, culture, media, and entertainment. The creative class makes up roughly a third of total employment and accounts for more than half of all wages and salaries in America. Creative class employment has seen relatively low rates of unemployment during the course of the economic crisis. Creative class jobs will make up roughly half of all projected U.S. employment growth - adding 6.8 million new jobs by 2018."
Florida provides several maps to chart where the growth in creative jobs will be and concludes:
"At bottom, a jobs strategy needs to start from a fundamental principle: That each and every human being is creative and that we can only grow, develop, and prosper by harnessing the full creativity of each of us. For the first time in history, future economic development requires further human development. This means develop a strategy to nurture creativity across the board - on the farm, in the factory, and in offices, shops, non-profits, and a full gamut of service class work, as well as within the creative class. Our future depends on it."
It's refreshing to see that creativity is part of everyone's possibilities. Do teachers, parents, and employers do enough to harness that potential in a variety of contexts?
Image:
