Jobs are still blipping into the ether as the publishing universe continues its cosmic contraction, even as the odd startup or new hire offers fleeting hope for the résumé-weary (see chart, below). To get a grip on it all, Publishing Trends has been monitoring the job market in book publishing and related fields, both by tracking individual personnel changes and by following layoffs, relocations, job creation, and “benign reorganization.”
During the past four months, according to Publishing Trends’analysis, the book business has shed 588 jobs, vastly more than an estimated 114 for the same period in 2002. These figures are gleaned from industry reports that generally don’t reflect hiring freezes (when positions are open but not filled) or the elimination of open jobs (when they’re axed outright). Moreover, given the purposeful obfuscation of employment figures, PT estimates that for every reported cut there are at least an equal number of unreported job losses. In sum, the total number of jobs that have vanished in the publishing industry since the beginning of the year is an estimated 1,200 to 1,500, including back office and warehouse positions. Some of these are being reincarnated as lower-level positions, and presumably some will be reinstituted when the blue skies return.
New Job Listings (week of May 19*)
Senior Management: 5
Rights: 5
Sales and Marketing: 29
Art/production: 12
Editorial: 27
Other: 30
*Source: NYT, PW, Publishers Marketplace
