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Employment in advertising, public relations and related services fell by 400 jobs in August, indicating the market slowing following strong gains earlier in the summer.
For the overall economy, U.S. employers added 315,000 jobs in August, taking employment to an all-time high, according to the monthly employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.7% from 3.5%, the first increase since January and the sharpest one-month uptick since early in the pandemic in spring 2020.
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 488,900 jobs in August based on figures that are not seasonally adjusted.
The loss of 400 ad jobs in August followed an increase of 4,200 jobs in July.
BLS downwardly revised the July figure from a preliminary gain of 4,700 jobs it reported a month ago.
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 those jobs.
U.S. ad agency employment totaled 222,500 jobs in July, an all-time high.
Ad agencies added 2,600 jobs in July after gaining 1,500 jobs in June based on figures that are not seasonally adjusted.
BLS downwardly revised the June figure from a preliminary gain of 2,100 jobs it reported a month ago.
BLS reports ad agency employment on a one-month lag, so August figures aren’t yet available.
But August’s decrease in ad, PR and related services staffing foretells a small drop in ad agency employment last month.
Internet media employment jumped to 356,300 jobs in July, an all-time high.
U.S. internet media employment—the BLS classification of “internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals”—rose by 7,700 jobs in July after gaining 8,900 jobs in June based on figures that are not seasonally adjusted.
The robust growth is a positive indicator about the health of internet media, running counter to concerns about a tightening in digital media amid reports of job cuts at some tech companies including Snap.
BLS upwardly revised the June figure from a preliminary gain of 8,800 jobs it reported a month ago.
As with ad agencies, internet media staffing is reported with a one-month delay and is not seasonally adjusted.
The nation in August added 315,000 jobs based on seasonally adjusted figures as employers overall continued to hire in a tight labor market despite high inflation, rising interest rates, a slowing housing market, a jittery stock market, recession worries and a spate of headlines about corporate layoffs.
Employment grew by 526,000 jobs in July (downwardly revised from 528,000) and by 293,000 jobs in June (downwardly revised from 398,000).
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.
With August’s employment gain, total U.S. employment (152.7 million) has now recovered all of its pandemic losses, topping its February 2020 pre-pandemic peak (152.5 million) to reach a new all-time high.
The U.S. unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, rose to 3.7% in August from 3.5% in July.
The July figure brought the jobless rate back to its level before the pandemic (3.5% in February 2020), tied for the lowest level since 1969. Amid signs of a slowing economy, that could be the business cycle’s unemployment rate nadir.
In April 2020, unemployment 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.