Employment in advertising, public relations and related services scored an all-time high in November, adding 1,200 jobs last month to break an employment record.
 
Overall U.S. employment rose by 199,000 jobs in November, according to the monthly employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That beat economists’ expectations, a sign of the labor market’s continued resilience.
 
The unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, fell to 3.7% in November from 3.9% in October.

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 came in at a record 504,500 jobs in November based on seasonally adjusted figures. 
 
The ad market added 1,200 jobs in November following a gain of 3,000 jobs in October.
 
BLS upwardly revised the October figure from a gain of 2,300 jobs reported a month ago. It downwardly revised the September figure to a gain of 1,400 jobs vs. the 2,800 job increase reported a month ago.
 
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 47%—of those jobs.
 
Ad employment weakened last fall, dropping in three of four months from September 2022 through December 2022. But the ad business found new momentum this year, with staffing increases every month this year except for March. Over the past six months, the average monthly gain for the ad market was 1,600 jobs.
 
These ad employment gains came despite cutbacks this year at media companies and ad-centric tech firms.
 
Employment in the broad BLS classification of media streaming distribution services, social networks and other media networks and content providers rose to 230,400 jobs in October on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, up 2,100 jobs from September.
 
Employment in the classification of web search portals and all other information services increased by 1,500 jobs to 163,000 jobs in October on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. Staffing is well below its all-time high of 171,900 jobs last January.

Ad agencies

U.S. ad agency employment rose to 237,900 jobs in October, reaching an all-time high. That marked a gain of 2,700 jobs for the month on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.
 
The October increase followed a gain of 1,200 jobs in September. BLS downwardly revised the September figure from a preliminary increase of 1,900 jobs reported a month ago.
 
BLS reports ad agency employment on a one-month lag, so November figures aren’t yet available. But the November increase in advertising, PR and related services employment suggests that ad agency staffing rose last month.

Unemployment rate

The U.S. unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, dropped to 3.7% in November from 3.9% in October. The unemployment rate is almost the same as it was a year ago in November 2022 (3.6%).
 
The jobless rate has been 4.0% or lower every month since December 2021, a stretch of unusually low unemployment not seen since the 1960s. (The unemployment rate stayed within the range of 3.4% to 4.0% from December 1965 through January 1970.)

U.S. employment

The nation in November added 199,000 jobs based on seasonally adjusted figures, slightly higher than what economists had expected and an indication of the labor market’s continued strength.
 
November’s  job increase marked 35 consecutive months of job gains.
 
BLS said the economy gained 150,000 jobs in October (unchanged from the figure reported a month ago).
 
BLS said 262,000 jobs were added in September (downwardly revised from 297,000 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.
 
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 (157.1 million jobs in November) has recovered all of its pandemic losses, topping its February 2020 pre-pandemic peak (152.4 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 see an expanded table showing advertising employment back to 2000 at AdAge.com/adjobs.

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