Full story below courtesy of [Digital Music News]

That’s according to statistics compiled by the US Department of Labor, which counted 269,400 working musicians in 2010.  That, overlayed with the US Census population figure of 308,745,538, means that 1 in 1,146 American adults is thriving, surviving, or scraping by as an instrumentalist, singer, director, composer, or related endeavor.

Here are some of the more interesting Labor statistics (2010).

Number of ‘Musicians, Singers, & Related Workers’: 296,400

Subset of ‘Musicians and Singers’: 176,200

Subset of ‘Music Directors and Composers’: 93,500

Median Hourly Salary, Musician/Singer: $22.39

Median Hourly Salary, Director/Composer: $22.10

Additionally, jobs among musicians have grown since 2000, according to the Labor statistics.  And, the Department predicted modest gains of about 10% in the sector by 2020.