Employment in advertising, public relations and related services eked out a gain of 300 jobs in January.

Overall U.S. employment rose by 143,000 jobs last month, coming in below forecasts, according to the monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report includes annual data revisions that ended up lowering some historic employment figures.

The unemployment rate dropped a tick to 4.0% in January from 4.1% in December.

Omnicom Group, meanwhile, reduced its U.S. employment by 11.3% or 2,800 jobs in 2024, according to Ad Age Datacenter’s review of annual regulatory filings.

Below, Ad Age Datacenter breaks down the report—by the numbers.

Advertising, PR and related services

U.S. employment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classification of advertising, PR and related services edged up to 497,400 jobs in January based on seasonally adjusted figures.
 
The ad market added 300 jobs in January following a loss of 1,400 jobs in December.
 
BLS revised the December figure from a preliminary loss of 1,500 jobs reported a month ago.

This BLS jobs 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 44%—of those jobs.

BLS revised employment figures for the overall economy and for business sectors going back to 2020 as part of its annual benchmarking process. With those revisions, BLS determined that ad employment was lower than previously reported.

For example, BLS now says advertising, PR and related services employment totaled 497,100 jobs in December 2024. That’s a decline of 23,700 jobs from what BLS a month ago had reported as December ad market employment (520,800 jobs).

Previous BLS data showed that ad market employment reached an all-time high of 523,800 jobs in April 2024. The revised figure for last April is 499,600 jobs.

As a result, the official all-time high for ad market employment turns out to be 503,700 jobs back in 2000 in the dot-com bubble, when internet startups were shoveling money into advertising using a cash windfall from venture capital and IPOs.

Ad agencies

U.S. ad agency employment totaled 220,000 jobs in December on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, a drop of 600 jobs.

Ad agency employment, after the BLS benchmarking revisions, turns out to be lower than previously reported. The revised figure for ad agency employment in November 2024, for example, is 17,500 jobs lower than previously reported.

Job cuts at Omnicom

BLS stats offer a view of overall ad employment, but regulatory filings show what’s up (or down) at specific companies.

Omnicom this week became the first major agency holding company to file its annual report for calendar year 2024.

Omnicom’s U.S. employment totaled about 21,900 people at year-end 2024, down 11.3% or 2,800 jobs from a year earlier, according to Ad Age Datacenter’s review of annual filings.

The company employed about 74,900 people worldwide at the end of 2024, down 1.3% or 1,000 jobs from year-end 2023.

These drops came despite Omnicom adding more than 2,000 employees when it bought Flywheel Digital, a U.S.-based digital commerce business, in January 2024.

Omnicom’s annual filing cited a “reduction in headcount arising from our ongoing repositioning actions and changes in our global employee mix.” 

Speaking on an earnings call this week, Chairman-CEO John Wren said Omnicom in 2024 “established four state-of-the-art centers of excellence in India and expanded our nearshore operations in Latin America,” initiatives the company is deploying “to improve service delivery and lower labor costs.”

It’s notable that Omnicom disclosed 31,200 employees in the “Americas” at year-end 2024, unchanged from a year earlier even as U.S. staffing fell. The inference is that Latin America employment rose.

Omnicom, assuming it completes its pending acquisition of Interpublic Group of Cos., is expected to make job cuts at the combined enterprise as it works toward $750 million in annual cost savings.

On the earnings call, Wren said: “Importantly, these cost synergies will not impact employees dedicated to servicing our clients and generating revenue. Instead, they will arise from streamlining holding company, middle office and regional positions, as well as from eliminating duplicative overhead, back-office and third-party expenses across our larger combined global footprint.”

Wren also said: “In assessing talent, we will adopt an approach focused on selecting the best individuals from across the organizations, irrespective of their current affiliation.”

“We anticipate identifying even more savings once the companies are combined,” Wren said.

Unemployment rate

The U.S. unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, ticked down to 4.0% in January from 4.1% in December.

The jobless rate has been remarkably steady, hovering in the range of 4.0% to 4.2% since last May.

U.S. employment

The nation in January added 143,000 jobs based on seasonally adjusted figures, below economists’ predictions.

BLS said 307,000 jobs were added in December, upwardly revised from the 256,000 jobs reported a month ago.

BLS said 261,000 jobs were added in November, upwardly revised from the 212,000 jobs reported a month ago. 

BLS monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.

BLS’s annual benchmarking process, which resulted in changes to some job figures, also affected the December and November revisions.

January’s increase marked 49 consecutive months of job gains, an uninterrupted winning streak that began in January 2021, which was the month that President Joe Biden took office. 

The last monthly job loss, a decline of 183,000 jobs, occurred in December 2020, which was the final full month in President Donald Trump’s first term.

Biden was the first president in modern times to achieve an unbroken record of monthly job gains during his period in office, according to Ad Age Datacenter’s analysis of a BLS job-growth data set going back to 1939, including presidents who served less than one term, one full term, two full terms or (in the case of Franklin D. Roosevelt) more than two terms.

Over that period, every four-year presidential term coincided with one or more months of job losses—with two exceptions: President Barack Obama’s second term (2013-2016) and Biden’s single term, when there were job gains every month.

Ad Age All Access subscribers can download a spreadsheet showing advertising employment back to 2000 at AdAge.com/adjobs.

The spreadsheet incorporates employment data revisions made by BLS in February 2025 in its annual benchmarking process and updating of seasonal adjustment factors.