After reading the article “Media Work Force Sinks to Fifteen Year Low”, by Bradley Johnson from http://adage.com/ , it gave me a lot of perspective on the job market of the fields of communications.
The article talks about how even though professions in the media world are on a declining slump, the worst in fifteen years, the world of advertising and marketing are steadily increasing, breaking a record in November by having 769,000 openings available. Especially hot are advertising/marketing services, which are agencies that provide marketing and advertising service to marketers.
The reason why is because these services have more opportunities than media, they can go use digital initiatives, direct marketing and advertising, promotions and events. Adaptations to new vechiles of promotion have been a key reason on the increase. Media jobs include newspapers, broadcast television, radio, magazines and internet media companies.
Stocks have also been an indication of how the advertising and marketing world have been performing better than media. Four of five advertising agency stocks have risen since 2002, and fifteen of twenty six marketer stocks have risen. In comparison, eleven of nineteen media stocks have fallen.
Advertising had hit a decline after its 2000 peak, with staffing 10% below its peak while PR is 11.5% off. It is on its rebound since 2004. Agencies have added 106,000 jobs since then. Since the peak of the dot com age in 2000, media companies have eliminated one in six jobs. Newspapers have suffered the hardest from the media slump, which one of four newspaper jobs have disappeared since the newspaper peak in 1990.
The article was interesting to me as a student in the field of communication because it deals with how the communications job market is fairing in today’s world, and how some areas are doing remarkably better. As a student going into that job market in four years, I am interested to learn anything I can about what I am getting into, along with one specialties are more needed to others. This can help me tweak my specialty in communications, along with what additional courses I should take now to help me get a job once I get out of school.
The article relates to me as a student majoring in Advertising-the creative track, because it talks about how advertising, along with marketing and pr, are increasing jobs and have rebounded from a slump from 2004. It also shows that agencies have to do adapt to the ever changing market, so they do not suffer the slumming that media outlets are experiencing now. Knowing that jobs are increasing is a bigger incentive for me to gain all the knowledge I can about advertising and digital media because that is where the career path is going towards.
I agree with this article, because it shows that adaptations in the realm of advertising and marketing agencies have helped both professions stay afloat and flourish. It also shows the media outlets must find a way to adapt, like advertising and marketing agencies did.
