AdAge Says Media Work Force Has Sunk to 15-Year Low

Posted on February 18, 2008

AdAge has a grim article that says the media work force has shrunk to a 15-year low. One in six media jobs have dissapeared since 2000 according to AdAge. For newspaper jobs it gets even worse - one in four newspaper jobs have been lost since 1990. That depressing figure isn't news to anyone in the newspaper business. 2008 hasn't started out in the right direction for newspapers with both the L.A. Times and New York Times announcing jobs cuts.

AdAge used Bureau of Labor Statistics data to come up with their figures. Last year newspapers, TV and radio all cut jobs. AdAge says there was a tiny increase in magazine jobs (400 jobs added) and 9,200 jobs added by web media companies last year. Even though web media companies are in a growth spurt there are still 31% less web media jobs than there were before the dot-com crash hit.

With the U.S. economy - and possibly the global economy - on the brink of a recession we may not see a turn around anytime soon. Any improvement in the number of media jobs may also be complicated by the ongoing transformation in the industry from print to digital.