Employment in advertising, public relations and related services fell in July for the fourth time in the past six months as overall labor market growth weakened and the unemployment rate rose to its highest level since 2021, according to the monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Below, Ad Age Datacenter breaks down the report—by the numbers.
U.S. employment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classification of advertising, PR and related services declined to 522,200 jobs in July based on seasonally adjusted figures.
The ad market lost 500 jobs in July after a gain of 200 jobs in June.
BLS downwardly revised the June figure from a gain of 700 jobs reported a month ago.
Over the past six months, the average monthly increase for the ad market was 300 jobs, with gains in April and June and losses in February, March, May and July.
Ad employment reached an all-time high of 523,800 jobs in April. U.S. advertising employment is now 1,600 jobs below that peak.
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 46%—of those jobs.
U.S. ad agency employment jumped by 1,100 jobs in June, rising to 238,400 jobs on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.
The June increase followed a loss of 1,300 ad agency jobs in May.
Ad agency employment fluctuated in the first half of 2024, falling in January, March and May and increasing in February, April and June.
BLS reports ad agency employment on a one-month lag, so July figures aren’t yet available. But the July decrease in advertising, PR and related services employment suggests that ad agency staffing fell last month.
The unsettled state of ad employment comes amid cutbacks at some media companies and ad-centric tech firms.
Walt Disney Co. is eliminating about 140 jobs, or about 2% of staff, at Disney Entertainment Television, and Spotify last month laid off 40 people globally from its account and campaign management teams.
Employment in the broad BLS classification of media streaming distribution services, social networks and other media networks and content providers rose to 219,700 jobs in June on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, up 500 jobs from May.
Employment in the classification of web search portals and all other information services totaled 149,800 jobs in June on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, up sharply by 3,500 jobs for the month. Even with that gain, staffing is significantly below the all-time high of 162,100 jobs reached in late 2022.
The U.S. unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, jumped to 4.3% in July from 4.1% in June.
That’s the highest jobless rate since October 2021. The increase has raised chatter among economists about the possibility of a recession.
Two historic notes about jobless rates and recession:
The jobless rate stayed within a range of 3.4% to 4.1% every month from November 2021 through June 2024, a stretch of unusually low unemployment not seen since the 1960s.
The unemployment rate held within a range of 3.4% to 4.1% from November 1965 through January 1970. A recession began in December 1969, followed by a period of sharp increases in unemployment. At the end of 1970, the unemployment rate stood at 6.1%.
The dot-com bubble era—when a surfeit of internet startups shoveled money into advertising using a cash windfall from venture capital and initial public offerings—offers a more worrisome comparison given recent signs of softness in parts of today’s internet-powered economy.
The unemployment rate hit a low in 2000 of 3.8% as an internet frenzy fueled the economy, the stock market and the advertising market. The bubble burst, and a recession began in March 2001, the same month the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%. At the end of 2001, the jobless rate was 5.7%.
The nation in July added 114,000 jobs based on seasonally adjusted figures, well below economists’ predictions.
BLS said 179,000 jobs were added in June, downwardly revised from the 206,000 jobs reported a month ago.
BLS said the economy gained 216,000 jobs in May, downwardly revised from the 218,000 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.
Over the past six months, the average monthly increase was 194,000 jobs.
July’s increase marked 43 consecutive months of job gains, an uninterrupted winning streak that began in January 2021.
Following an unprecedented loss of 20.5 million jobs in April 2020 as the nation locked down in the coronavirus pandemic, the economy has added jobs every month except for December 2020.
Total U.S. employment (158.7 million jobs in July) has recovered all of its pandemic losses, topping its February 2020 pre-pandemic peak (152.3 million) to reach a new all-time high.
The World Health Organization in January 2020 declared the coronavirus outbreak a global public health emergency and in March 2020 classified COVID-19 as a pandemic. The group’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in May 2023 determined that “COVID-19 is now an established and ongoing health issue which no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.”
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 2024 in its annual benchmarking process and updating of seasonal adjustment factors.
