Employment in advertising, public relations and related services rose by 1,700 jobs in August, a modest gain as overall U.S. employment showed its weakest growth since January.

For the overall economy, U.S. employers in August added just 235,000 jobs, 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 BLS classification of advertising, public relations and related services increased to 449,800 jobs in August, marking the seventh month of growth since ad jobs hit a pandemic period low of 432,100 in January.

The August increase in advertising employment came in below July’s gain of 2,200 ad jobs. BLS upwardly revised the July figure from the preliminary 1,200 jobs gain 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 44%—of jobs in that BLS bucket.
 

U.S. ad agencies added 4,800 jobs in July, the biggest month gain for BLS ad agency staffing figures dating back to 1990. That robust growth followed a gain of 2,800 jobs in June. Ad agency employment—197,300—is at its highest point since March 2020, the month that the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 was a pandemic.

BLS reports ad agency employment on a one-month lag, so August figures aren’t yet available. But August’s advertising, public relations and related services staffing increase suggests a smaller gain in ad agency employment last month.

Agencies are watching staffing levels closely. Even before the COVID-induced recession began in February 2020, ad agency employment had trended downward from the record high of 208,800 jobs reached in 2018. The recession officially ended in April 2020.

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Agency job cuts before and during the coronavirus pandemic aren’t a surprise. Labor is the biggest cost for agencies, and ad agencies were grappling with sluggish growth even before the recession.

U.S. ad agency employment tends to peak earlier than the overall U.S. job market in the waning days of a business cycle’s economic expansion before a recession. On the flip side, agencies generally are cautious about adding employees as the economy recovers, resulting in a lag in staffing growth.

U.S. internet media employment in July rose by 5,600 jobs, reaching an all-time high of 314,900 jobs.

As with ad agencies, internet media staffing is reported with a one-month delay.

Digital media firms prospered during the pandemic, and that has translated into solid job growth. U.S. staffing at internet media businesses rebounded quickly from a brief dip in the early stages of the pandemic in spring 2020.

The nation in August added 235,000 jobs, well below what economists expected. The economy added an upwardly revised 1,053,000 jobs in July and an upwardly revised 962,000 jobs in June, the two strongest months for job growth this year.

Following an unprecedented loss of 20.7 million jobs in April 2020 as the nation locked down, the economy has added jobs every month except for December. But the total U.S. nonfarm payroll is still 5.3 million jobs below its February 2020 all-time high.

The U.S. unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, fell to 5.2% in August from 5.4% in July.

The unemployment rate in February 2020 stood at 3.5%. In April 2020, it reached 14.8%, 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.