Although the U.S. labor market is thriving, the journalism industry is not doing so well. According to statistics reported by The Columbia Journalism Review, 3,385 journalists lost their jobs this year.
However, this trend has been ongoing for years, starting 2008. Additionally, between 2008 and 2018, employment in newsrooms declined by 25 percent with major losses being at print newspapers.
Among the major companies that laid off newsroom staff were Buzzfeed, Vice, HuffPost and Gannett with the major chunk of redundancies being at Verizon Communications, it laying off 800 workers amid a global restructuring effort.
Verizon was followed by The McClatchy Company which laid off 480 workers who was followed by Gannett which laid off 400 employees prior to its acquisition.
As the U.S. unemployment rate touches a low, many industries are having a hard time finding enough qualified workers. The news industry has also been dealing with a host of specific challenges amid this problem.
Consequently, there has been a move among journalists from Vice Media, the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune and other such publications to unionize. They believe this will help their fight for stability amid uncertain market conditions.
