Over a quarter lost their jobs last year, and more and more are leaving the industry. These are the conclusions of the Games Industry Employment Survey, the final version of which has now been published.
The study partners InGame Job and Values Value had already published initial results at gamescom, which we had already covered in an article. Now all the data has been evaluated and prepared for the final report, which has now been published. It is available free of charge on the InGame Job website.
Even though the study is not representative, the high number of cases shows how serious the problems in the games job market are, especially in Europe.
More than a quarter of those surveyed said they had experienced layoffs themselves or in their circle of acquaintances in the past year. This affected all areas of gaming, but game designers, artists, and QA specialists were particularly hard hit. The consequences for the industry are dire: on average, 13 percent of those surveyed in the industry turned their backs on it last year. At the junior level, the rate of people leaving the industry is particularly high at 39 percent. The industry is therefore losing young talent to other sectors of the economy. By profession, the rate of people leaving was particularly high in marketing at 24 percent.
Other key findings are that 15 percent of respondents have been looking for a new job for more than a year and 28 percent have accepted poorer working conditions, such as a reduction in salary or position. Also interesting: 41 percent have a personal project running alongside their job.
