A study revealed by the Entertainment Software Association shows that the video game industry are creating more jobs than ever before since 2009 and up until 2012.
Additionally, the study showed that this same industry that brought Sonic, Mario and Master Chief grew faster than US economy.
In collaboration with ESA, Economics Incorporated Principal Stephen E. Swiek composed a study, dubbed as Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2014 Report, that showcased how much of an impact that the industry had on both the economy since 2009. It also shows how well it did in creating jobs since that year, trends in software publishing and plenty of other delving topics.
Most importantly, the report explicitly shows that the industry’s yearly job growth is 13 times faster than the labor market in good ol’ USA. This means, that the video game industry has created employment for over 42,000 people.Writers, creators, graphic designers and other industry faithfuls earn a salary of around $95,000, which accumulates to more than $4 billion across the nation.
From a state-to-state perspective, California ranks as the number one place to be for employment in the video game industry, employing 17,608 workers in this state. Texas sits right behind the Golden State, with the industry having directly and indirectly employed 4,926 people. The large growth of industry employees in Texas sparked as a result of the state passing digital production tax credit back in 2009.
“The high-energy, high-tech video game industry is rapidly producing some of the most valuable jobs in the U.S. economy. Our industry is one of the nation’s fastest growing economic sectors and represents tens-of-thousands of high-paying, well-educated professionals, artists and creators,” said ESA President and CEO Michael D. Gallagher.
This is a giant milestone for not only the industry, but for gamers in the United States as well. With so much negative backlash from non-industry entities and news leaders, as well as the dismal events that transpired between video game publications, game publishers, developers and the gamers themselves, this study proves that there’s really something behind all the joysticks and fireballs. Something good and substantial. Not only does the report show that video games equal big money, but it’s also telling of how colossal the video game industry will be in the future.
To learn more, you can check out the full report here. If you don’t like reading, you can check out a small summary of the report here.
