Via the Pew Research Center, a downbeat report: Journalism Jobs Harder to Find. Excerpt:
Yet for all the troubling news, the study's authors did identify a few encouraging signs, such as an increase in the number of 2009 graduates working with the internet, a central component of modern journalism.
Fully 58.2% of the recent bachelor graduates with communication jobs reported being involved with Web writing and editing, a substantial increase from 50.6%, the year before.
"Given that digital activities are certainly a key part of communication work," the report concluded, "the suggestion is that the quality of the jobs the 2009 graduates took, on average, was at least slightly higher than had been true for the 2008 graduates."
When it came to the students' assessments of their college educations, the results were mixed. A majority of graduates (58.3%) said they were satisfied with the way school had prepared them for communication jobs.
But 41.7% said they either hadn't been properly prepared or weren't sure. In addition, 42.5% said they felt that they hadn't acquired certain key skills necessary for real-world success -- mainly in new digital technologies and job seeking strategies.
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