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Employment in advertising, public relations and related services fell by 2,400 jobs in May, an unsettling turnabout for a sector that until recently had been scoring solid gains, according to the monthly employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For the overall economy, U.S. employers in May added 390,000 jobs, the lowest monthly jobs gain in more than a year.
Below, Ad Age Datacenter breaks down the report—by the numbers.
U.S. employment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classification of advertising, public relations and related services came in at 474,600 jobs in May based on figures that are not seasonally adjusted.
The loss of 2,400 ad jobs in May followed a modest gain of 700 jobs in April.
This was the first monthly decrease in ad jobs since January. Setting aside the employment drop at the start of the year (ad jobs have fallen every January since 2000 on a not seasonally adjusted basis, according to Ad Age Datacenter’s analysis of BLS data), May brought the first monthly decline in ad employment since November 2020, early in the pandemic.
BLS upwardly revised the April figure from a preliminary gain of 500 jobs it reported a month ago, when Ad Age noted “a marked deceleration in employment growth.”
This BLS bucket includes ad agencies, PR agencies and related services such as media buying, media reps, outdoor advertising, direct mail and other services related to advertising. Ad agencies account for the biggest portion—about 45%—of jobs in that BLS bucket.
Ad, PR and related services employment stood at 484,400 on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020. Ad employment hit a pandemic nadir of 430,800 in January 2021.
U.S. ad agency employment reached an all-time high of 215,000 jobs in April, breaking the previous record set in March.
Ad agencies expanded staffing by 300 jobs in April and 1,300 jobs in March based on figures that are not seasonally adjusted.
BLS downwardly revised the March figure from a gain of 1,400 jobs it reported a month ago.
BLS reports ad agency employment on a one-month lag, so May figures aren’t yet available.
But the decline in May advertising, public relations and related services staffing suggests that ad agency employment last month fell from its peak.
U.S. internet media employment—the BLS classification of “internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals”—increased by 1,600 jobs in April after rising by 7,300 jobs in March.
BLS upwardly revised the March figure from a preliminary gain of 6,400 jobs it reported a month ago.
Internet media employment stood at 333,700 jobs in April, an all-time high.
As with ad agencies, internet media staffing is reported with a one-month delay and is not seasonally adjusted.
Check out The Big List, Ad Age Datacenter’s definitive rankings of advertisers and agencies.
The nation in May added 390,000 jobs based on seasonally adjusted figures.
That was the lowest monthly jobs growth since April 2021. But it still was a solid gain, demonstrating that employers were hiring last month even as inflation, rising interest rates, weakening consumer confidence and a seesawing stock market suggest a cloudy outlook for the economy.
Employment grew by an upwardly revised 436,000 jobs in April and a downwardly revised 398,000 jobs in March.
Following an unprecedented loss of 20.5 million jobs in April 2020 as the nation locked down, the economy has added jobs every month except for December 2020.
The World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020.
The total U.S. nonfarm payroll is still 822,000 jobs below its February 2020 all-time high. If the pace of recent monthly job gains continues, total U.S. employment will recover all of its pandemic losses and score a new record in July or August.
The U.S. unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, came in at 3.6% for the third month in a row.
The unemployment rate was 3.5% in February 2020, tied for the lowest level since 1969. In April 2020, it reached 14.7%, the highest since before World War II.
Ad Age Datacenter subscribers can see an expanded table showing advertising employment back to 2000 at AdAge.com/adjobs.
Subscribe to Ad Age’s Datacenter for ongoing data and insights on all of the most-advertised brands.
In this article:
Bradley Johnson is Ad Age’s director of data analytics and runs Ad Age Datacenter with colleague Kevin Brown. Johnson focuses on data and financial topics related to marketing, advertising and media. Johnson has held Ad Age posts in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York including editor at large, deputy editor, interactive editor, bureau chief and reporter.