new college graduates

There's a great piece in the Village Voice about J School graduates seeking work in a questionable economy. Given the posts Craig and I have been doing about the state of journalism in the wake of the Cronkite death, I thought this piece an interesting boost of optimism from aspiring Millennial Journalists.

Even though a career in journalism "makes as much sense as signing up for a career as a Pontiac dealer," it seems the hard times are no match for a generation hell bent on reviving the profession with a boost of technology and a new fresh approach. Millennials to the rescue!

Malia Politzer's "concentration was new media and investigative journalism. "I'm a bit of a technophobe," Politzer says, so she was glad to be pushed to learn how to make websites, shoot and edit video, build flash sites, and use multimedia in her reporting. . . She had already worked as an intern at The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong and had the opportunity to be a freelance writer covering the Beijing Olympics"

Despite the optimism, however, all of the young people interviewed aren't in full time post-grad jobs. They've scored sweet internships and key fellowships, but that hasn't actually translated into a salary with benefits.

"Being a reporter in New York is like being an actor in Hollywood," says Aïda Alami, 25, a native of Marrakesh who was a magazine major. "I needed a degree to get ahead a bit and meet people and make contacts."

Despite jobs at MTV, Google News, the 2004 Kerry Campaign, and a graduate degree from Columbia Chikodi Chima can't get his new blog funded.

"In January, I launched a blog called TechTrotter to investigate start-up hot spots of the developing world," he says. "I wanted to see where innovation is happening off the radar of the mainstream American media." . . . He generates most of the content, but says that if he were to launch his own company, it would be "a subscription-based fact-checking service that hires unemployed journos to double-check blog posts" before they're published."

The major problem with new journalists who are armed to the gills with tech experience and knowledge, is that so many papers still haven't figured "it" out. As Jack Schafer from Slate notes back in January

"The curious thing about the various plans hatched in the ’90s is that they were, at base, all the same plan: “Here’s how we’re going to preserve the old forms of organization in a world of cheap perfect copies!” The details differed, but the core assumption behind all imagined outcomes . . . was that the organizational form of the newspaper, as a general-purpose vehicle for publishing a variety of news and opinion, was basically sound, and only needed a digital facelift."

Perhaps, they should employ some of these new enthusiastic grads for some outside of the box ideas.

Last Friday night, Luke Russert did a piece on young people and the economy that appeared on NBC Nightly News. Here's the video:

The economy is starting to affect much of society now, but young people continue to be overlooked. Russert's piece shines some light on the horrible job market those lucky enough to secure a college degree face. Here's hoping we see some more reporting on the major networks like Russert's piece.

So apparently the economy is super awesome for new graduates according to ABC News.

"The entire process was intimidating," Shawn Basak a soon to be Northwestern grad said. "It was nerve-wracking, given the state of the economy, which compounded the fear and pressure."

His worries were misplaced, thanks in part to the masses of retiring baby-boomers making way for the likes of Basak, who eventually landed three attractive job offers...

"[Companies] are seeing a lot more retirements of the more seasoned employees and need to replace them with new talent," Andrea Knock of the National Association of Colleges and Employers said."

Now wait a damn minute. Does anyone really believe that?? Are you honestly telling me that a 65 year old brain surgeon who leads his department is being replaced by a 23 year old just out of college dude named Shawn? I call BS on this piece.

Fact is, that the "new talent" that Andrea Knock speaks so highly of is still people that are middle aged. They get to move up. Young people aren't getting hot sexy jobs because seniors are retiring.

"The 45 million young people in the U.S. work force face a choppy job market in which entry-level wages have often trailed inflation, making it hard for many to cope with high housing costs and college debt loads." Says the International Harald Tribune last year."

And hows that housing market working out for ya?? Exactly.....

The ABC report goes on to say that the job markets where people can expect to pull jobs are in aerospace engenearing and "financial services." And new engeneers can expect a whoping 6% increase in starting salaries. So... if you were making say $45k to start you'd now be making $47,700 a year. To put that into prospective best jobs for this type of work are going to be in Florida, California.. places like that. Orange County or San Diego California for example - well Orange County is number 4 on the least affordable places to live so you're going to have to live more in LA and take the bus to work or spend 3 hours on the 405. San Diego? The National Low Income Housing Coalition considers minimum salary you'll have to make to pay rent without going over spending 30% of your income is $47,547 so as long as you'll get about $150 bucks more a year than you need! Swell!!

Florida? Florida is better.. you only have to earn $2,834 a month to be able to score an apartment. Take it easy on getting excited about the house though, cause minimum average price" (and that's not the sexy houses) is about $230k.

"At the University of California-Los Angeles, Career Center Director Kathy Sims said she sees "little correlation" between reports of a sluggish economy and on-campus recruiting activity."

So we've covered graduates from Northwestern and UCLA. Why don't we just poll Harvard and Yale people and see how hard it is for them to get a gig, eh? This doesn't deal with the oh 10 million or so other kids who graduated from states like Kansas, Missouri, Wyoming, Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana.... How are graduates from those states doing?

My point is this: ABC News falls into that same age old trap that so many politicians who talk about the economy and the job market for young people fall into. They are trusting the Bush spin.

Nowhere in this article does it talk about the average debt that college graduates leave school with. In 1999-2000 - those prosperous economic days the number doubled for college debt spiking to nearly $17,000. Today its $20,000, more if you go to a private school. Add to that a lessening availability for health care and benefits, no pensions, and we're putting loads of money into a social security system we may never see a dime out of.

Swell economy. ABC needs to think a little outside the GOP talking points. Bite me? Yeah, I think it already has.