This blogger has had a really busy holiday season. Apologies for the disappearance, to those who care.
The thing that comes to mind most today, having talked with family and friends about the economy, is the impact of the current crisis on our industry. A lot of my friends, arts-involved and non, are worried about job security right now. Theatres in New York are starting to downsize, and I wonder how far it will go. A friend argued that now is a good time to be a freelancer, as he believes that theatres will first cut their fulltime staff and rely on overhires. I disagree with this slightly- though full-timers are expensive due to benefit payments and such, overhires make more money per hour (the going rate in NYC for non-union techies is currently $20/hour). I think it is more likely that the overhire rate will decrease (it hasn't increased even for cost of living in the past five years as far as I know), and the current full-time staff members at most places will be worked harder in order to avoid using overhires.
Another friend of mine is in grad school at the moment, and I think that financially, that's the way to go. She's learning skills that will hopefully get her a job in two years, when the economy (hopefully) will have recovered slightly. And in the meantime, the job situation isn't so important for her.
Your thoughts?
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About Me
- KDubs
- New York, New York, United States
- Tired. Caffeinated. Quietly evil.
I'm a theatre technician, living and working in NYC. Also an aspiring costumer, makeup artist, playwright and dilettante.
I like to rant about things, I swear like a person who swears a lot, and I work too much. Other than that, my time is spent at home with the puppy or in Chelsea bars with friends and co-workers.
1 comment:
I agree with your outlook. I think house staff (full time or part time) will be worked harder to avoid over hires and some houses will, of course, downsize. Over all I think that the biggest impact will come to production houses that rely on original work as they will find it harder to find funding. Regional touring houses and summer stock I think will be fine since people like to go to shows to escape real life, especially the economic crisis. College kids should be the best off since they will be getting into the job market as the economy makes an up turn, but they will be competing with a tough job market since there will be so many available qualified workers.
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