Reproducing Toronto’s Design Ecology: Career Paths, Intermediaries, and Local Labor Markets

Creativity is becoming the currency of the contemporary economy. A sustained literature in economic geography and elsewhere has pointed to the importance of creativity, especially in the cultural industries. Production in these sectors often rests upon access to deep pools of highly skilled talent, primarily in large urban regions. However, the recent literature has stated that cultural or creative inputs are not limited to these industries, but also extend into other sectors of the economy that benefit from access to the same (local) labor markets. It is argued that creative work is primarily project based and that highly skilled creative professionals move seamlessly from project to project and from job to job. This circulation of talent is viewed as crucial to the flow of knowledge and the (re)production of practices, norms, and reputations across firm and industry boundaries within the city-region. Despite the compelling nature of this description, the labor market dynamics that underpin this circulation of creative workers remain poorly specified and only weakly substantiated. This article addresses this issue by investigating systematically the local interfirm and interindustry dynamics of creative labor markets. Using evidence from the detailed career histories of practicing designers, as well as in-depth interviews with various institutional actors in Toronto, it documents how the careers of designers are characterized by precariousness and high levels of circulation within the local labor market. The analysis also demonstrates the importance of reputation building, repeated collaborations, shared career paths, and mediation by a constellation of formal and informal intermediary actors for career development.