The Worst Jobs of 2013
Working as a newspaper reporter was a dream job for Rochelle
Gilken, but that changed as the years passed and the industry shifted
gears. "The pay left a lot to be desired, and the stress - oh boy! I
have two kids, and I have to say that I couldn't balance home and work
and be happy due to the stress," says Gilken, who spent six years as a
crime reporter for the Palm Beach Post.
Of course, low
pay and high stress are part of a reporter's job description, but other
changes led to Gilken's decision to change industries. "I had
aspirations to get bigger and better newspaper jobs, but the opportunity
to climb the ladder disappeared as newspapers cut back, which was very
discouraging," says Gilken. "I always wanted to travel to cover the big
stories, like the Olympics, but the money to allow for that just wasn't
there and wasn't coming back," she says.
Ever-shrinking newsrooms,
dwindling budgets and competition from Internet businesses have created
very difficult conditions for newspaper reporters, which has been
ranked as this year's worst job, according to the CareerCast.com Jobs
Rated report.
Consumers can access online news outlets almost
anywhere thanks to technological advancements, which are threatening the
existence of traditional print newspapers. As a result, the number of
reporter jobs is projected to fall 6% by 2020, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), while average pay is expected to
continue its decline.
Jobs Rated Links
And for those still employed as reporters, the job's demands are all-consuming.
"I
covered crime, so when breaking news happened, I had to be there. And
when editors called at night with questions, I had to take the calls,"
says Gilken. She adds that while many reporters feed off the stress,
once they have families, the stress takes a toll. Gilken now works in
media relations for the Florida Water Management District in West Palm
Beach, and says the hours and stability are welcome. "They're very
supportive of their employees to have a work/life balance, which
reporters really never have."
Social media marketer Paul Gillin founded NewspaperDeathWatch.com in 2007 when the newspaper industry was at a peak. The website tracks newspaper closures and cutbacks around the U.S.
“We
didn’t see newspapers respond [to consumer changes] at all,” says
Gillin. “I saw that once [the decline] hit, it would hit very hard and
very quickly.”
The Newspaper Association of America, via the Pew Research Center,
estimates that the industry earned approximately $49.2 billion in 2006.
By 2011, that total had dropped by well over half to $23.9 billion
taking many jobs with it, including thousands of newspaper reporter
positions.
Editor & Publisher reports a steady
decline in the number of daily newspapers since 1985, when there were
1,730 in circulation. The industry held steady near 1,450 in the
mid-2000s, but closures in the latter half of the decade left the nation
with a low of 1,382 dailies.
Some prominent dailies migrated to online models, such as, The Ann Arbor (Mich.) News, which publishes twice weekly. The New Orleans Times-Picayune transitioned to a three-times-weekly newspaper in 2012. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer became online-exclusive in 2009.
Of
course, newspaper reporters have fared poorly in the Jobs Rated report
for years due to the job's high stress and tight deadlines, low pay and
requirement to work in all conditions to get the story. But journalism
is not a dying art, nor is reporting a profession without prospects.
Rethinking the industry has made reporters adapt.
Gillin says
online reporters – a different job from the newspaper reporter as ranked
via Jobs Rated – have better prospects, but unfortunately that
profession provides a lower wage and the requirement to produce more
content at a much faster rate, which increases stress.
Door-to-Door Bad Jobs
Technological
advancements negatively impacted other careers ranked as the worst jobs
of 2013. Among them are meter reader and mail carrier. Meter reader is
one of the most rapidly shrinking career fields, expected to decline by
more than 10% in the next few years. In the utilities industry, power
companies are increasingly implementing remote readers, which digitally
transmit electrical usage from the consumer’s residence to the
provider’s database.
Mail carriers are expected to fare even
worse. With consumers relying heavily on email and text messaging, the
traditional form of snail mail communication is dwindling. As such, the
BLS reports that the number of mail carrier jobs will fall by 26% in the
coming years. The government’s plan to cease post office operations on
Saturdays isn't helping.
A much different career path ranks second
overall in the worst jobs of 2013: lumberjack, one of the most
dangerous professions in the entire labor market. Sixty-four lumberjacks
reportedly died from work-related injuries in 2011. Having to work with
heavy, dangerous machinery contributes to lumberjack fatalities, as
does the typically isolated locations in which lumberjacks work.
Distance
from hospitals also poses a major risk. The same is true for oil rig
worker, another job ranked among the worst jobs of 2013, where physical
danger and injury are constant threats.
The complete list of the 10 worst jobs this year:
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