The Johns Hopkins Listening Post Project has released a new report “Recession Pressures on Nonprofit Jobs.” The keys points about museums:
- In the six months through March 2010, 30% of museums had a net loss in staffing
- 53% of museums in the survey said “we lack adequate staff to deliver our programs/services.”
Overall, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a seasonally adjusted decline of just 0.5% from May 2009 to May 2010 and 3.0% from May 2008 to May 2010—but this may not capture the whole picture, as the BLS only identifies 130,000 workers in the museum sector.
Skip over related stories to continue reading articleMaybe more people should jump into the discussion at the “Museum Task Saturation Group” at the Society of Educational Resource Groups. (And let’s hear it for euphemisms…)
"Task saturation" is an interesting way to describe it! I'm not sure if the current overextending is due to the recession or if the recession just exposed the issues that already existed in the museum industry.