Employment in advertising, public relations and related services increased by 2,300 jobs in December, according to the monthly employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For the overall economy, U.S. employers in December added 199,000 jobs, the weakest monthly increase in a year, while the unemployment rate fell to a pandemic low point of 3.9%.

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

U.S. employment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classification of advertising, public relations and related services increased to 460,400 jobs in December.

The ad business banked its 11th consecutive month of growth since ad jobs hit a pandemic period low of 432,100 in January 2021.

The December increase in advertising employment came in below November’s gain of 3,300 ad jobs. BLS upwardly revised the November figure from the preliminary 2,900 jobs increase 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 900 jobs in November and 3,000 jobs in October.

Ad agency employment in November reached 202,000 jobs, the highest level since March 2020, the month that the World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic.

BLS reports ad agency employment on a one-month lag, so December figures aren’t yet available. But December’s modest advertising, public relations and related services staffing increase implies at least some growth in ad agency employment last month.

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U.S. internet media employment—the BLS classification of “internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals”—increased by 4,500 jobs in November and 1,300 jobs in October.

BLS downwardly revised the October figure from the preliminary gain of 2,500 jobs it reported a month ago.

Internet media employment stood at 318,300 jobs in November, an all-time high.
 
As with ad agencies, internet media staffing is reported with a one-month delay.

The nation in December added 199,000 jobs, far below what economists expected, as employers struggled to fill open positions in a tight labor market.

The economy added an upwardly revised 249,000 jobs in November and an upwardly revised 648,000 jobs in October.

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 2020. But the total U.S. nonfarm payroll is still 3.6 million jobs below its February 2020 all-time high.

The U.S. unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, fell to 3.9% in December from 4.2% in November. 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.

Subscribe to Ad Age's Datacenter for ongoing data and insights on all of the most-advertised brands.