Employment in advertising, public relations and related services fell by 1,500 jobs in December, shrinking ad employment to its lowest level since early 2024.

Overall U.S. employment jumped by 256,000 jobs last month, closing out the year with the biggest monthly jobs increase since March, according to the monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate dropped a tick to 4.1% in December from 4.2% in November.

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 declined to 520,800 jobs in December based on seasonally adjusted figures.
 
The ad market lost 1,500 jobs in December following a drop of 500 jobs in November.
 
BLS revised the November figure from a preliminary loss of 300 jobs reported a month ago.

Advertising employment ebbed and flowed in 2024, with gains in five months (January, April, July, September and October) and losses in seven months (February, March, May, June, August, November and December).

After all of those monthly shifts, ad employment at the end of the year (520,800 jobs) wasn’t much different from January 2024 (520,400 jobs).
  
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.

Ad agencies

U.S. ad agency employment totaled 238,100 jobs in November on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, an increase of 100 jobs.

That followed a gain of 1,600 jobs in October. BLS downwardly revised the October figure from a preliminary increase of 2,400 jobs reported a month ago.

Ad agency employment fluctuated in 2024, increasing in February, April, June, July, October and November and dropping in January, March, May, August and September.

BLS reports ad agency employment on a one-month lag, so December figures aren’t yet available. But the decrease in advertising, PR and related services employment suggests that ad agency staffing fell last month.

Media

U.S. employment in the broad BLS classification of media streaming distribution services, social networks and other media networks and content providers fell to 216,100 jobs in November on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, down by 3,100 jobs from October. Employment in that sector is at its lowest point since 2016.

Employment in the classification of web search portals and all other information services totaled 149,700 jobs in November on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, an increase of 500 jobs for the month. Staffing remains far below the all-time high of 162,100 jobs reached in late 2022.

Unemployment rate

The U.S. unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, edged down to 4.1% in December from 4.2% in November.

The jobless rate has been remarkably steady. After increasing earlier in 2024, the unemployment rate has come in at either 4.1% or 4.2% for the past seven months.

U.S. employment

The nation in December added 256,000 jobs based on seasonally adjusted figures, far above economists’ predictions.

BLS said 212,000 jobs were added in November, downwardly revised from the 227,000 jobs reported a month ago.

BLS said 43,000 jobs were added in October, upwardly revised from the 36,000 jobs reported a month ago. The October figure was weighed down by furloughs of workers displaced by two hurricanes and by a strike at airplane manufacturer Boeing.

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 165,000 jobs. Growth over the past three months averaged 170,000 jobs, up from 159,000 jobs in the previous three months.

December’s increase marked 48 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 243,000 jobs, occurred in December 2020, which was the final full month of President Donald Trump’s first term.

Assuming January 2025 ends up with a job increase, there will have been a job gain every month Biden was in office. Biden would be the first president in modern times to achieve that unbroken record of monthly job gains, 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 or two full terms.

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