A generation after the advent of social media, the U.S. Census Bureau makes no mention of jobs in that sector in its tally of 22,607 American industries, The Washington Post reported.
This global industry is valued at $250 billion, with tens of millions of workers, hundreds of millions of customers and its own trade association and work-credentialing programs. These online creators and content-makers supported roughly 390,000 full-time jobs last year In the United States, YouTube estimated, in a report by Oxford Economics—four times the number of people employed by General Motors, America’s biggest car manufacturer.
In addition, there are still no U.S. regulations on how creators earn a living or use their influence, which can lead to both good and bad outcomes. While social media can allow anyone to have his or her voice heard, it also enables the dissemination of misinformation and fragmented public discourse to an extent in which there is little agreement on a proven set of facts.
Being an influencer is now one of the most popular career aspirations for American youth, above professional athlete and astronaut, according to the Post—but there are downsides to the job.
“Creators can go through this sort of whole life cycle of their career in six months,” creator Hank Green said at an industry summit in Los Angeles this spring. The internet is insatiable, he added, and everyone can be replaced: “There is, as far as I can tell, an infinite number of 22-year-olds.”
In a survey of 9,500 participants last year by the creator-focused start-up Linktree, only 12 percent of full-time creators said they made more than $50,000 a year, and 46 percent said they made less than $1,000.
The Oxford Economics YouTube report estimated that YouTube's creators contributed $35 billion to the country’s gross domestic product last year, a figure that would rank the group’s combined output ahead of U.S. furniture manufacturing but behind rail transportation, according to industry data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
But Erica Groshen, the former head of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, said those figures may undercount the creator economy’s real impact, comparing it to the gig economy, another sector of nontraditional work often overlooked in the United States.
“A lot of people engage in it a little bit, and … it is often very important to them: It is helping tide them over while they’re unemployed, helping them meet unexpected expenses, helping launch them in some way,” she told the Post. It plays a major role in “facilitating transitions that are important in our economy—for making ends meet.”
Federal labor statistics offer no reliable measurements for the social media creator class. An official with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which tallies its own data, told the Post that creators would probably be classified as “public relations specialists” or “independent artists, writers and performers.”
The creator economy has also upended the advertising world, the Post reported. Payments from advertisers to creators in the United States have more than doubled since 2019, to $5 billion, estimates from the market research firm Insider Intelligence showed.
Many creators supplement their incomes by selling monthly paid subscriptions; soliciting tips, gifts and donations from fans; and partnering with suppliers to sell branded merchandise and consumer product lines. That has helped to fund and elevate a new class of online “micro-influencers,” including video game players, amateur comedians and other creators.
Professional creators now often recruit and hire teams of specialists: managers, writers, editors, designers and camera operators to provide content, as well as agents, accountants, event coordinators and publicists. They have also helped equipment companies to sell professional-grade cameras, microphones, tripods, lights, green screens and other gear to creators.
Despite the growth of this industry, neither Congress nor the states have made much effort to help creators bargain for better pay or working conditions or unify behind a shared set of rules, the Post reported.
Matt Navarra, a social media industry analyst, told the Post that the lack of a safety net has left most creators to fend for themselves. He noted that the platforms on which creators work are subject to rule changes at any time. Self-employment has always been tough, he said, but “the issue has never been that your business stopped making money because a giant tech company changed the algorithm this week.”