The New York Times data blog, The Upshot has a data-dump piece illustrating the impact of the recession on various sectors of the economy. You can see the full hairball image at the top of the post but what I’ve highlighted is how the digital transformation of publishing has impacted the media business.
Up top you see that jobs associated with the printed word (as in, on paper) have suffered while those jobs involved with digital production have spiked upward. More specific details in the image below.
I had coffee with someone today and we got to talking about the economy in Japan. From what I was reading, the recent consumption tax hikes were hitting the Japanese economy hard but what this person told me was more nuanced. While old manufacturing jobs, the traditional backbone of the economy that Western journalists look to for an indication of health, were suffering (think Sony, Hitachi, Panasonic), newer businesses around design, software development and mobile advertising were booming.
Broad brushstrokes always gloss over the finer details.
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