WHERE IS THE INCREASE IN JOBS?

Great play has recently been made about the fact that Equity membership numbers have increased. The membership figures are at an all time high. Wonderful some may say...but consider this....as membership numbers have increased by several thousand where have the NEW jobs come from? We have not seen any news in "The Stage", for example, that Government policies / funding has increased so as to create more jobs in our profession. Neither have we seen any significant growth in job opportunities in Film, TV, Variety and LE. In fact most members will tell you that searching for work has become harder. One might argue that numbers have increased because people already doing work have been persuaded to join Equity but others will equally argue that those who are newly joining are doing so at the expense of taking work from existing members. We wonder if the bar for joining Equity has not been lowered so low as to totally devalue the professional status of holding an Equity card. We also wonder if the percentage of members "out of work" has increased ! ! !