2002 Graduate Survey Summary

Summary of 2002 Graduate Survey Results

	The percentage of journalism and mass communication bachelor’s degree recipients with a fulltime job six to eight months after graduation dropped for the second year in a row in 2002.

	The percentage of journalism and mass communication bachelor’s degree recipients with at least one job offer upon graduation also declined, following a sharp decline a year earlier.

	Once again in 2002, the unemployment rate for those journalism and mass communication bachelor’s degree recipients who were actually seeking jobs was higher than the national unemployment rate, both for the overall labor force and for those in the age cohort of the journalism and mass communication graduates.

	The job market was particularly difficult for graduates who were members of racial and ethnic minorities, and the gap between the level of full-time employment of minority graduates and their counterparts increased to more than 10 percentage points.

	Six to eight months after graduation, only half of the journalism and mass communication bachelor’s degree recipients were working in the field of communication. The ratio has not been this low since 1992.

	Salaries remained static in 2002, with the median earned by journalism and mass communication graduates with a full-time job standing at $26,000.

	Benefit packages also remained stable, but only because more graduates were paying for the benefits entirely by themselves.

	Job satisfaction for those graduates with a job remained low in 2002, and an increasing number of graduates reported regretting their decision to study for a career in journalism and mass communication.

	Despite the bad news, seven in 10 of the graduates with full-time jobs reported they were proud of the company for which they work, and six in 10 said the work they do is meaningful.

	Graduates of journalism and mass communication master’s degree programs in 2002 also faced a difficult job market, with employment rates low but stable, and the median salary earned up from a year earlier.

	The full text of the 2002 Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates is available here (PDF, 138 k).

	The PDF version of the charts and tables is available here (PDF, 495K).

	Click here to view the chart "Salaries Compared" (PDF, 53k).

	Click here to view the table "Salaries by Employer Type" (PDF, 50k).

	You may also read about the history of the graduate surveys.

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