Only a small fraction of journalism graduates will succeed in getting jobs, according to a leading media academic.

A survey carried out by Francois Nel of the University of Central Lancashire found that the number of UK journalism has shrunk by up to a third over the past decade.

Meanwhile the number of journalism university graduates rose to an all-time high of 7,590 in 2008/9.

Although Mr Nel found that around 40,000 people are still employed in the industry, he said that figure had shrunk by between 10,800 and 13,200 over the past decade.

He said: “The reality is that only a fraction of the many thousands of graduates from UK journalism courses will find a place in the mainstream industry.”

Out of 79 recently-laid-off journalists who presented for his research survey, only 14 said they had found similar journalism work elsewhere.

The research was based partly on a survey of trade sites including HoldtheFrontPage and journalism.co.uk

Mr Nel said that 9,500 jobs in the industry had been lost since 2007 alone.

Comments

steve pain (09/09/2010 09:46:03)
Well, what a surprise! So why are young people still encouraged to join courses which at the end of the day usually result in disappointment – no job.

Farquhar the Freelance (09/09/2010 11:01:06)
The key here is ‘in the mainstream industry’. My hunch is that there are actually more jobs requiring journalistic skills, particularly in PR, taking up the slack caused by journalism redundancies, and in new media, where the job title might be content manager or something … the world is changing, the old mainstream is becoming the new backwater.

JTownend (09/09/2010 11:29:41)
“Out of 79 recently-laid-off journalists who presented for his research survey, only 14 said they had found similar journalism work elsewhere.”
Just to add to this: The study surveyed 144 redundant journalists and this part referred to the 79 respondents who gave details of new work. Of those, only 14 (18 %) said it was in journalism. Interestingly (or depressingly) only 23 per cent of 134 respondents had found fulltime work (a further 20 per cent had found part-time) http://bit.ly/laidoffjourns

opto (09/09/2010 11:35:39)
Delighted and amazed that so many still want to be hacks. Working conditions and pay for reporters have never been worse but they are not put off. Good for them and shame the industry is shrinking.

Alex (09/09/2010 17:44:23)
These surveys have become redundant. We know what a shoddy state journalism is in; let us know if and when it turns a corner. People are doing journalism courses for a variety of reasons and many of them are ultimately not prepared to put up with months of fruitless job applications and the unpaid work which has become virtually mandatory to get a job. But there are still opportunities for the talented, determined, and connected, few. The fact people are still applying for journalism courses isn’t a sign of mass naivety, but a reflection of the different expectations students have about their employment prospects and what a job ought to entail.

hacker (09/09/2010 21:15:02)
If you go into regional journalism today you are a professional lemming.

steve pain (10/09/2010 10:40:35)
The question still stands. If the chance of getting a full time job as a hack is so low, why are kids still being encouraged to spend years learning the job – when there is probably no job, either in newspapers, new media or PR or whatever you wish to term it. Who is making the money?