Ad employment fell sharply in September following summer boom
Ad employment tumbled in September. Overall U.S. employment grew at a slower pace last month, but the unemployment rate fell.
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Advertising, PR and related services
U.S. employment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classification of advertising, public relations and related services came in at 483,400 jobs in September based on figures that are not seasonally adjusted.
The loss of 8,700 ad jobs in September followed a gain of 2,700 jobs in August.
BLS upwardly revised the August figure from a preliminary loss of 400 jobs it reported a month ago.
The September ad jobs loss marked the biggest one-month ad employment decline since January 2021.
It is conceivable August marked the business cycle peak for ad employment amid signs of a cooling economy.
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 45%—of those jobs.
U.S. employment
The nation in September added 263,000 jobs based on seasonally adjusted figures, the lowest monthly jobs growth this year.
That suggests a cooling labor market amid economic headwinds—high inflation, rising interest rates, slowing housing market, slumping stock market, recession worries—and a spate of headlines about corporate layoffs.
The economy added 315,000 jobs in August and 537,000 jobs in July (upwardly revised from 526,000).
Following an unprecedented loss of 20.5 million jobs in April 2020 as the nation locked down, the economy has added jobs every month except for December 2020.
The World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020.
Total U.S. employment (153.0 million jobs in September) has recovered all of its pandemic losses, topping its February 2020 pre-pandemic peak (152.5 million) to reach a new all-time high.
