State Of Employment Poll & Review May 11 – 17

With several weeks of data, our weekly employment status polls, which track both orchestra administrators and musicians, are beginning to illustrate trends.

Weekly Report

Perhaps unsurprisingly, as shutdowns continue, we’re starting to see more shifts in the ratio of workers indicating they are employed at a reduced rate or not at all.

Administrators experienced a 30 percent increase toward workers indicating they were working at reduced employment status and/or being furloughed or laid off.

For the first time since we began tracking responses, more salaried musicians indicated they were being paid at reduced salary than those being paid regular salary and benefits.

While per service musicians experienced moderate changes this week, this stakeholder group is still bearing the brunt of reduced and entirely lost pay.

Be sure to track the per week and cumulative totals at the Orchestra Stakeholder Employment Status During Coronavirus Shutdowns Google Sheet.

This Week’s Poll

• For staffers and managers, the questions are straightforward. Music directors (employee or independent contractor status) and staff conductor positions should respond as an administrator.
• For musicians, questions are specialized for salary and per-service level musicians. While there are certainly musicians that fall between those groups, I’m asking that you use your best judgement to select answers that best represent your current work status.
• Each weekly poll will allow you to submit one reply. Having said that, it is important for each respondent to return the following week in order to confirm or update your status with a new reply. Doing so will provide an even clearer sense of how things change from week to week.

If you have not yet submitted a response this week, please take a moment to submit your status below. The more submissions we have, the better the data represents current conditions. To that end, we’ll be collecting results through Sunday for this week’s totals so if you have yet to submit a response, please take a moment to do so.

Likewise, submitting a response each week goes a long way toward tracking major changes in status. So, thank you in advance for taking part and encouraging your friends and colleagues to do the same.

This Survey has expired.