The Gen Y Job Market

As a media and communication student I could probably pay off half of my degree if I had a dollar for every time someone has asked me something along the lines of:

“So, what? You’re learning how to communicate?”

“What job could you possibly get with that degree?”

“Is that like journalism? Like, what do you even learn?”

Despite these constant questions I receive however, certain people’s responses do become justified (slightly) when I realise that to some the idea of studying something without one clear outcome at the end is an extremely confusing concept. All one has to do is be sucked into the media panic regarding the fact that a degree in journalism is supposedly now a waste of your time, or that piracy is killing the film and music industry, which of course is not true, but still too many it now seems absurd that someone would willingly choose to study those things. Stuart Cunningham and Ruth Bridgstock also remind us in their paper, Say Goodbye to The Fries, that there is always going to be those old jokes about arts and humanities students graduating to “McJobs” and as they say, and us media students clearly know, these jokes are forever going to be hard to put to rest. These jokes however are incredibly unjustified, because although the media landscape is changing and the job market is more diverse then ever before, it does not mean all is doomed… us Gen Y babies are still getting employed and creating our own opportunities along the way, despite the fast paced changing media times.

There is not a doubt in anyone’s mind that the changing media landscape is changing the job market in Australia and around the world, as audiences are shifting, the way in which we consume and create media is moving to digital and there is nothing we can do to stop it. What this brings with it however is a significant change in the jobs that are now available to people like myself who are studying something within the creative industries, and this is a concept some older generations are struggling to understand. It has been said that for us Gen Y’ers a job for life is a thing of the past and that, “the employment market is changing so dramatically that most of the jobs we will hold in our 40’s haven’t even been created yet.” This ‘new’ market is definitely not just a thing for the future though, with the job market currently producing more and more positions every year. People themselves are even creating some of these jobs, with the most prominent and obvious being the changing 21st century journalist.

Once upon a time to become a journalist meant predominantly one thing, you were going to write for a newspaper. Fast forward to 2013 and the future of journalism is looking extremely different, but different does not mean doomed. Although it was found that “almost every newspaper and magazine in Australia recorded a drop in print circulation in the last few months of 2012,” it’s not all bad, because news is not disappearing it is just being consumed elsewhere. It is becoming quite clear that the “future of news is electronic and the winners in the current pending digital age will be those who are digitally literate…” and this is where we (Gen Y) begin to thrive. Cunningham and Bridgstock’s study found that digital communication and media knowledge were amongst the most commonly mentioned value-adding skills possessed by Media, Cultural and Communication graduates in the workforce, and this no doubt brings invaluable knowledge and skillsets to not only journalists but those finding work in various creative fields.

So while yes, it is true that traditional journalism and communications jobs are falling, what is exciting about this change is that it “offers journalists the opportunity to cover stories more creatively”, and gives many the chance to be more adventurous, bold, and original in the work they pursue. So while many continue to wonder what will become of us graduating into a world where life long job security, it turns out, we are going to be okay! Disciplines encompassed by media, cultural and communication studies are delivering skills and capabilities that are required in the workplace.

Plus once those quirky art students’ graduate, turns out they don’t serve the fries, they just make art with them: