Ad business cut 3,500 jobs in December as market goes cold

Ad employment declined in three of the past four months. Overall U.S. employment kept growing last month despite stresses in the economy.

Kass Kass
Jan 7, 2023 - 21:01
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Ad business cut 3,500 jobs in December as market goes cold

The nation in December added 223,000 jobs based on seasonally adjusted figures.
 
That suggests a softening in the labor market amid economic headwinds—high inflation, rising interest rates, slowing housing market, slumping stock market, recession worries—and cascading headlines about corporate layoffs.

The economy added 256,000 jobs in November (downwardly revised from 263,000 jobs) and added 263,000 jobs in October (downwardly revised from 284,000 jobs).
 
U.S. employment grew by 4.5 million jobs in 2022. That’s the second-highest annual jobs gain on record, after the 6.7 million jobs added in 2021 as employment rebounded from pandemic-related losses in 2020.
 
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 (153.7 million jobs in December) has recovered all of its pandemic losses, topping its February 2020 pre-pandemic peak (152.5 million) to reach a new all-time high.
 
The World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020.

Ad Age Datacenter subscribers can see an expanded table showing advertising employment back to 2000 at AdAge.com/adjobs.