It’s no secret that the economic trajectory of Canada’s cultural and sport sector has been thrown wildly off course by the pandemic.

New data released yesterday by Statistics Canada show that the sector’s real GDP during the second quarter of 2021 was still 6.2% below where it was during the same quarter in 2019 (i.e., before COVID). Meanwhile, employment in the sector was still down by 11.4% or 88,000 jobs.

On the bright side, the second quarter of 2021 was a whole lot better than the same quarter in 2020 with GDP up by 14.8% and jobs higher by 12.1%.

Some large differences emerge when we take a closer look at the sector’s components. For example, the real GDP generated by the live performance sub-sector was still down by 63.4% compared to the second quarter of 2019. Organized sport was also a long way from being whole again at 29.2% below its pre-pandemic level. These numbers should be better for the second half of the year as more and larger in-person events were made possible by vaccination efforts.

Sub-sectors that have managed to increase their real GDP compared to the second quarter of 2019 include interactive media (+13.0%), design (+4.5%), government owned/operated sport entities such as public pools (+1.7%), and government owned/operated culture entities such as public libraries (+1.6%).

Answer to the previous trivia question: The first Oktoberfest was held in Munich in 1810.

Today’s trivia question: Approximately how many items are in the catalogue of the Library and Archives of Canada?