Employment in advertising, public relations and related services increased by just 1,000 jobs in September, the smallest job gain since the spring.

For the overall economy, U.S. employers in September added 194,000 jobs, the weakest employment increase this year, according to the monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Job growth was held in check by the delta variant of the coronavirus and a persistent shortage of workers.

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 450,900 jobs in September. Job growth in that sector was the slowest since April, but the ad business still delivered its eighth consecutive month of growth since ad jobs hit a pandemic period low of 432,100 in January.

The September increase in advertising employment came in well below August’s gain of 2,400 ad jobs. BLS upwardly revised the August figure from the preliminary 1,700 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 the BLS bucket.

U.S. ad agencies added 1,800 jobs in August. That growth followed a gain of 4,800 jobs in July. Ad agency employment—199,100—is at its highest point 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 September figures aren’t yet available. But September’s slim advertising, public relations and related services staffing increase implies limited growth 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 August increased by 2,300 jobs, reaching an all-time high of 317,200 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 September added 194,000 jobs, below what economists expected. The figure was held down by weak growth in private-sector employment and a decline in government employment, primarily in public education.

Job growth was depressed by the spread of the delta variant, and employers grappled with an ongoing shortage of workers that made it difficult to fill many open positions.

The economy added an upwardly revised 366,000 jobs in August and an upwardly revised 1,091,000 jobs in July.

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 5.0 million jobs below its February 2020 all-time high.

The U.S. unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, fell to 4.8% in September from 5.2% in August. The drop partly reflects that many people have exited the labor force amid fallout from the pandemic, reducing the supply of potential workers.

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.