Happy Statistics

[Greg & Mary Ellen Newell]

On Mon, 09 Dec 1996 10:45:00 -0500, jpiesik@arinc.com wrote:

>Hi Paul,
>
>I don't have any hard statistics for you, but I have tried to work the numbers
>as I find this subject interesting (we all should if we're interested in job
>security).
>
>Anyways, here's how my logic of guestimation works (get out your calculators):
>Figure about 300 million people in the US.  Figure about 3-4 members per family.
> That gives us about 80 million households in the US.  Figure about 20-30% of
>those households have servicable pianos.  That leaves about 20 million pianos in
>the US that require periodic service.  Now go to any major city and look in the
>yellow pages - you'll find that there are roughly about 50 piano tuners per any
>major city in the US.  If you figure there are about 150-250 major cities (with
>at least about 1 million in population) in the US we find that there are about
>100,000 pianos in a given major US city.  And there are about 10,000 piano
>technicians in the US.  That leaves about 2000 pianos per technician.  But you
>have to account for the fact that the average piano owner services their piano
>only about every 1-5 years.  So realistically, every technician, in a major
>metropolitan city, will have about 800 pianos per year to service.  If every US
>technician works about 250 days per year in the field, they must service about
>3-4 pianos per day (seems about right doesn't it?).
>
>But remember, not all technicians work full time.  And GOOD technicians do more
>work since they are in higher demand.  Looks to me as though there is PLENTY OF
>WORK for all of us.  I even predict that there will be a VERY increased demand
>for GOOD COMPLETE piano service over the next 5-20 years, for several reasons,
>but that is a topic for another discussion!
>
>Happy tuning!!
>
>Optimistically yours,
>
>John Piesik
>Piesik's Piano Service
>Carlsbad, CA
>JPIESIK@ARINC.COM
>
>
>Hi all,
>
>Does anyone out there know how many households in the US own pianos, and
>how many piano tuner/technicians there are to service them.
>
>I have a feeling that the ratio of technicians to pianos is quite low.
>
>I'm doing a class session for our music 101 class on careers in music, so
>this information might be helpful to me.
>
>Also, any other statistical tidbits regarding our profession would be useful.
>
>Thanks,
>Paul Kupelian, RPT
>kupelian@oswego.edu
>


This sounds just like an article in this months Reader's
Digest.  Oops ... did I find you out?
				Greg
Greg & Mary Ellen Newell
Greg's Piano Forte'
12970 Harlon Ave.
Lakewood, OH 44107

e-mail;
gnewell@en.com	or
dt945@cleveland.freenet.edu
(216) 226-3791