Journalism Jobs Harder to Find

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Journalism Jobs Harder to Find

The tight journalism job market is taking its toll on recent college graduates, according to a new report released today by the University of Georgia. The survey of more than 2,700 journalism and mass communication students who graduated in 2009 found the lowest level of full-time employment in the 24-year history of the study.

The results, included in the University of Georgia's "Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates" reveal that just 55.5% of 2009 journalism and communication graduates with a bachelor degree were able to find full-time work within a year of leaving school. That is down 4.9 percentage points from the year before and stands in stark contrast with the 70.2% of graduates who found work as recently as 2007. The most recent masters degree recipients fared little better, with their employment rate dropping to 61.9% from 65.4% in 2008.

Although 2008 was a difficult year for new graduates seeking employment, the 2009 jobs picture was markedly grimmer. "While 2008 was bad, last year was even worse," said Lee Becker, the report's co-author and the director of the Cox Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research at the University of Georgia.

Read the full report, Journalism Jobs Harder to Find on the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism Web site. 

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