Survey: Job Market Intact for journalism Graduates
by E&P Staff
NEW YORK The job market for journalism graduates has remained largely unchanged for the second half of 2007 and the first half of 2008, according to a new survey from the University of Georgia.
The results of the survey from the university's James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, to be officially unveiled Thursday, reveal that nearly the same percentage of graduates in 2007 found full-time jobs within six to eight months of graduation as in the previous year, and salaries remained the same.
According to the report, on Oct. 31, 2007, 63.3% of the bachelor's degree recipients had a full-time job, a figure nearly identical to the 2006 report of 64%. Almost all of the 2007 bachelor's degree recipients who looked for work had at least one in-person job interview in the six to eight months after graduation.
The median salary earned by 2007 bachelor's degree recipients was $30,000,exactly the same as the median salary earned by bachelor's degree recipients in 2006, while the median salary for master's degree recipients in 2007 was $40,000, $2,000 higher than a year earlier. For eight of nine benefits listed, a slightly larger percentage of 2007 graduates reported receving those benefits than 2006.
"Given the turmoil in the traditional media industries and the large number of layoffs, particularly in the daily newspaper segment," researchers said in the report, "the consistency in the experiences of the 2007 graduates probably can be treated as good news."
The survey also found job satisfaction of graduates to be at a 20-year high, with 42.1% of respondents feeling "very satisfied" with their job. In all, 2,271 spring graduates from 83 universities around the country participated in the survey.
