Encourging jobless journalists

I subscribe to many mailing lists (too many really, they clutter up my inbox) but I was particularly taken with the subject line of today's journalism.co.uk emailshot.

Celebrate! Your new journalism job is here it boomed jovially as my inbox loaded.

Indulging its marketing lure, I clicked the email open. Unsurprisingly, my new journalism job was not there. I didn't have an offer from any of the many jobs I've applied for, nor was there news of a miraculous new training scheme.

The only actual jobs in the email were the financial reporter in Frankfurt gig they've been pushing all week and managing editor for Singapore magazine Flight.

J.co.uk often have come-hither subject lines: Your new journalism career starts here and Journalism job du jour regularly crop up.

But the order to Celebrate! made me wonder why recruitment agencies and middlemen like j.co.uk feel they need to generate enthusiasm for jobs.

Yes, the industry is struggling, but that doesn't mean that jobs aren't being filled - quite the opposite. Students on my course scan j.co.uk and holdthefrontpage daily for new vacancies, as well as trawling media guardian and countless agencies. Demand is most certainly not the issue.

Are they trying to lift our spirits? Or do they really think we are gullible enough to believe a personally tailored job is waiting just behind a weblink?