Farmer and the newsman head for new careers

Little Boy Blue's got a job in town, and the guy with the 'press' pass in his hat is also looking for work.

The observation on the state of employment in the rural sector comes from Canadian singer-songwriter Fred Eaglesmith, and you probably don't need a survey by job portal CareerCast to tell you being a newspaper reporter is one of North America's most endangered jobs.

Only mail carriers, meter readers and farmer are at greater risk... and all of them earn more money, 86 per cent more in the case of farmers.

But the annual survey suggests alternatives as the media industry declines: "Former newspaper reporters have opportunities to migrate from print into digital media, marketing, advertising and public relations - fields where their skill sets transfer nicely," says the report.

As more people view their news digitally, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has estimated a 13 per cent decline in employment of newspaper reporters by 2022, projections validated by continued editorial staff cuts at such publications as the Los Angeles Times, just in the last few months of 2015.

Others at the uncomfortable end of the list are logging workers, jewellers, flight attendants, drill press operators, insurance underwriters and seamstress/tailors. As more and more people use email and text message, mail carriers go to the top of the "most endangered" list, with 28 per cent expected to lose their jobs by 2022.

Here's the CareerCast list, based on hiring outlook and the changing economic landscape: