Date: August 09, 2012
Author: Suzanne Rutledge
Contact: Dr. Lee Becker, lbbecker@uga.edu

The job market for graduates of the nation's journalism and mass communication programs showed signs of improvements in 2011 and 2012, continuing the trend from a year earlier, according to a report released today by researchers at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

The gains in the job market were modest, the researchers said, and 2011 graduates faced job prospects still much more limited than did graduates four years earlier.

The 2011 graduates were more likely to report having a job upon graduation, more likely to report having a full-time job, and more likely to be working in communication than were graduates a year earlier. While most graduates reported having an in-person job interview, the percentage was unchanged from a year ago.

Graduates landing a full-time job reported slightly higher salaries than did graduates a year earlier, but the gain just slightly beat the rate of inflation, and the improvement in salaries was the first reported by bachelor's degree recipients since 2006.

Because of inflation, the 2011 graduates actually earned significantly less than did the 2006 graduates in inflation-adjusted dollars. For the most part, graduates reported benefits packages in 2011 comparable to those reported by 2010.

Drs. Lee Becker and Tudor Vlad

Graduates in 2011 with a job were no more likely than graduates of a year earlier to report that they selected their job because it allowed them to meet career goals, but they were more likely to report being satisfied with the job held. Graduates were just slightly more likely to report being satisfied with the career choice.

These are the key findings from the Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates, conducted each year in the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research at the University of Georgia. The Cox Center is the international outreach unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Dr. Lee B. Becker, director of the Cox Center, and Dr. Tudor Vlad, associate director, wrote the report with graduate research assistant Konrad Kalpen.

The report was released today at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in Chicago.

The complete report is available at www.grady.uga.edu/annualsurveys/

The Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates is designed to monitor the employment rates and salaries of graduates of journalism and mass communication programs in the United States, including Puerto Rico, in the year after graduation. In addition, the survey tracks the curricular activities of those graduates while in college, examines their job-seeking strategies, and provides measures of the professional attitudes and behaviors of the graduates upon completion of their college studies.

Funding for the 2011 graduate survey was provided by the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication, the Association of Schools of Journalism & Mass Communication, Gannett, the Hearst Corporation, the McCormick Foundation, the National Association of Broadcasters, the Newspaper Association of America, the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Specialized Information Publishers Foundation, the School of Journalism, Indiana University, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, and the Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Georgia.

Established in 1915, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers undergraduate majors in journalism, advertising, public relations, digital and broadcast journalism, and mass media arts. The college offers two graduate degrees, and is home to the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu or follow @UGAGrady on Twitter.