North Carolina has seen an 8-percent increase in creative jobs over the past five years

If you're an advocate for creativity and the arts, get ready to be uplifted.

Last week, the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources announced that the Creative Vitality Index (CVI)--a national report that measures the creative economy's health every year--shows an increase of more than 8 percent in creative occupations jobs in North Carolina over the past five years. The creative industry provides almost 320,000 jobs to North Carolinians.

The increase took place in positions including architects, librarians, fine artists, designers, performers, photographers and public relations specialists.

Here are the CVI's specific findings for North Carolina:

• Creative industries are directly and indirectly responsible for almost 320,000 full-time, part-time and sole-proprietor jobs. This figure represents 6 percent of North Carolina's overall workforce. These creative industry jobs generate over $12 billion in wages, salaries and benefits--$2 billion more than the impact four years ago.
• The number of jobs in creative occupations increased by more than 8 percent over the past five years to 137,225 total creative jobs. This figure represents nearly 3 percent of the state's workforce. Between 2010 and 2011 our state gained 6,833 creative full-time, part-time and sole-proprietor positions in creative occupations.
• Creative industries in North Carolina generate more than $18 billion in revenues and more than $7 billion in exports.

You can view the 2013 Creative North Carolina fact sheet here.