Welcome to Ad Age Datacenter Weekly, our data-obsessed newsletter for marketing and media professionals.

U.S. ad business employment hits all-time high

“Employment in advertising, public relations and related services jumped by 2,600 jobs in May, catapulting staffing to its highest level since 2001,” Ad Age’s Bradley Johnson reports. “Ad agency employment reached an all-time high.”

The details: “U.S. employment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classification of advertising, public relations and related services came in at 496,600 jobs in May based on seasonally adjusted figures.” Johnson notes.

Keep reading here for Johnson’s drill-downs by BLS classifications.

Google ramps up data clean room collab

“Google is rolling out its clean room collaboration, which will be key to opening new data pathways in the ad tech ecosystem as programmatic advertisers prepare for a post-cookie internet,” Ad Age’s Garett Sloane reports.

The details: “Google has slowly been opening up to more clean room providers, including InfoSum, Habu and LiveRamp, which have services for publishers and advertisers that transact in online ads through Google’s Display and Video 360 demand side platform,” Sloane notes. “And last week, Google made a core data product—called PAIR—widely available through those partners.”

Essential context: “PAIR stands for ‘Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation’ and it’s a new way for marketers and publishers to match audiences for targeted ads while securing customer data in the clean room tech from Habu, InfoSum and LiveRamp. Google has its own clean room known as Google Ads Data Hub, which marketers and publishers also use to reconcile data sets for targeting and measuring ads online.”

Keep reading here.

Macroeconomic news and data in a nutshell

• “Jobs report shows big 339,000 gain in May. U.S. economy still going strong,” MarketWatch reports

• “US weekly jobless claims rise slightly; labor market defies recession fears,” per Reuters

• “8 takeaways from the debt ceiling vote,” from Politico

Don’t miss: Layoffs and budget cuts—tracking economic moves and news

See also: Advertising Salary Guide—why commerce jobs are in demand despite a tough economy

Daytime TV by the numbers

TV measurement company iSpot.tv gave Datacenter Weekly an exclusive first look at its new Daytime TV Transparency Report, which examines the daypart’s top advertisers, programming and networks from Labor Day 2022 through Memorial Day 2023, as ranked by TV ad impression. Key takeaways:

• Weight-loss brands grew daytime TV ad impressions by 35% during the measurement period, with brands such as WW and GOLO more than doubling daytime impressions compared to the same period a year prior.

• Overall, daytime linear TV ad impressions grew by 1.3% YoY, largely thanks to traditional broadcast networks—specifically ABC, CBS and NBC, which delivered a combined 9.5% more daytime impressions YoY.

• News and information shows delivered 15% more daytime TV ad impressions YoY.

• “The Price Is Right” was the top ad-delivery vehicle in daytime, responsible for 3.53% of the household TV ad impressions in the daypart. The iconic game show also delivered 6% more daytime impressions YoY.

• “Friends” was the No. 7 program by daytime impressions and the No. 1 show among all syndicated programs in the daypart.

Just briefly

• “Census Bureau delays release of some of census’ most detailed data until 2024,” per the Associated Press

• “Thirty Thousand Amazon Workers Could Access Alexa Data, FTC Says,” per Bloomberg News (via Yahoo! Finance)

• “Reddit sparks outrage after a popular app developer said it wants him to pay $20 million a year for data access,” CNN Business reports

• “Amazon to Pay $30M for Ring and Alexa Privacy Violations: Tips for Protecting Your Smart Home Data,” from CNET

The newsletter is brought to you by Ad Age Datacenter, the industry’s most authoritative source of competitive intel and home to the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers, the Ad Age Agency Report: World’s Biggest Agency Companies and other exclusive data-driven reports. Access or subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter at AdAge.com/Datacenter.

Ad Age Datacenter is Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson and Joy R. Lee.