US Newsroom Employment Falls 26% With 30,000 Jobs Lost Since 2008 - Report

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th July, 2021) Journalism jobs, especially in newspapers, in the United States have fallen 26 percent in the 12 year period ending in 2020, with declines somewhat tempered by increased employment in digital news organizations, a Pew Research Center report said on Tuesday.

"In 2008, there were about 114,000 total newsroom employees - reporters, editors, photographers and videographers - in five industries that produce news: newspaper, broadcast television, cable and 'other information services,'" the report said. "By 2020, that number had declined to about 85,000, a loss of about 30,000 jobs."

The bulk of the decline occurred in the first half of the 12-year period. Between 2008 and 2014, the number of newsroom employees dropped to 90,000, a loss of about 24,000 jobs.

After 2014, the number of newsroom employees stabilized, with little change over the six-year period through 2020, the report said.

Newspaper newsroom employment fell 57 percent between 2008 and 2020, from roughly 71,000 jobs to about 31,000. At the same time, the number of digital newsroom employees rose 144%, from 7,400 workers in 2008 to about 18,000 in 2020, the report added.

Newsroom employment remained relatively steady at cable tv stations, between 2,000 and 3,000 employees over the same period. Radio broadcasting, however, lost 26 percent of its newsroom employees, dropping from about 4,600 workers in 2008 to about 3,400 by 2020, according to the report.

The Pew Research Center said it based the report on data collected by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.