State Of Employment Poll & Review August 10 – 16

After 18 weeks of tracking responses, the ratio of overall under-employed and unemployed statuses among orchestra stakeholder groups continues to increase.

Weekly Report

Responses from Administrators continue to show a migration from those indicating being furloughed to fully laid off. The percentage of respondents indicating they are still working and being paid at regular full or part time rate is only 17 percent. Those working at reduced hours and pay comprise 30 percent and for the first time since measuring responses, the percentage of those indicating being laid off, 32 percent, was greater than the those working at reduced hours and pay.

Salaried musicians maintained saw zero responses from respondents being paid regular salary and benefits and a small increase in those on the other end of the spectrum not drawing a salary nor health care benefits.

Per-service musicians continued to shoulder the largest ratio of economic paid with most  respondents indicating they are not being paid for any cancelled services or are only receiving reduced payments.

You can track the per week and cumulative totals along with all of the stakeholder charts 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.