Employment in advertising, public relations and related services dropped by 5,900 jobs in January, according to the monthly employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For the overall economy, U.S. employers in January added 467,000 jobs, a solid start to the year.
Below, Ad Age Datacenter breaks down the report—by the numbers.
Datacenter
U.S. advertising employment fell in January
Ad agencies and internet media ended 2021 with employment at all-time highs
Advertising, PR and related services
U.S. employment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classification of advertising, public relations and related services fell to 457,100 jobs in January.
That was the first decline in ad industry employment since January 2021, when ad jobs hit a pandemic period low of 430,800.
The January decline, based on figures that are not seasonally adjusted, should not be a concern. Ad jobs have fallen every January since 2000, according to Ad Age Datacenter’s analysis of BLS data. Last month’s drop actually was the smallest January decline since 2016.
The January drop in advertising employment following December’s gain of 5,000 ad jobs. BLS upwardly revised the December figure from the preliminary 2,300 jobs increase it reported a month ago.
Ad agencies
U.S. ad agency employment in December reached an all-time high of 213,000 jobs.
Ad agencies added 2,900 jobs in December and 800 jobs in November.
BLS downwardly revised the November figure from the preliminary gain of 900 jobs it reported a month ago.
BLS reports ad agency employment on a one-month lag, so January figures aren’t yet available. The ad agency job stats are not seasonally adjusted.
Check out The Big List, Ad Age Datacenter’s definitive rankings of advertisers and agencies.
Internet media
U.S. internet media employment—the BLS classification of “internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals”—increased by 1,900 jobs in December and 4,000 jobs in November.
BLS downwardly revised the November figure from the preliminary gain of 4,500 jobs it reported a month ago.
Internet media employment stood at 322,400 jobs in December, an all-time high.
As with ad agencies, internet media staffing is reported with a one-month delay and is not seasonally adjusted.
U.S. employment
The nation in January added 467,000 jobs based on seasonally adjusted figures, above what economists expected. That’s a solid gain as employers grappled with effects of the COVID-19 omicron variant and a shortage of prospects for open positions in a tight labor market.
BLS upwardly revised total employment figures and overall job gains for August 2021 through December 2021.
The economy added an upwardly revised 510,000 jobs in December and an upwardly revised 647,000 jobs in November.
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. But the total U.S. nonfarm payroll is still 2.9 million jobs below its February 2020 all-time high.
The World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020.
Unemployment rate
The U.S. unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, rose to 4.0% in January from 3.9% in December. The unemployment rate isn’t far above its pre-pandemic level.
The unemployment rate in February 2020 stood at 3.5%. In April 2020, it reached 14.7%, the highest level since before World War II.
Ad Age Datacenter subscribers can see an expanded table showing advertising employment back to 2000 at AdAge.com/adjobs. The table incorporates data revisions back to 2017 that BLS made in February 2022 in its annual benchmarking process and updating of seasonal adjustment factors.
