US ad employment kept rolling in June, reaching highest level since 2001

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 497,500 jobs in June based on seasonally adjusted figures. 
 
That puts ad employment at its highest level since March 2001, around the time of the dot-com bubble. That earlier date is noteworthy: It marked the peak of the business cycle and first month of a recession.
 
The ad market added 2,200 jobs in June, matching the May increase of 2,200 jobs.
 
BLS downwardly revised the May figure from a preliminary gain of 2,600 jobs 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 46%—of those jobs.
 
Ad employment weakened last fall, dropping in three of four months from September through December. But the ad business found new momentum this year, with staffing increases every month in the first half of 2023 except for March. (Investors are bullish on the business. Shares in agency companies have done well this year, with Omnicom Group's stock last week hitting an all-time high.)
 
These ad employment gains came despite cutbacks at ad-centric tech firms and media companies.
 
Employment in the broad BLS classification of media streaming distribution services, social networks and other media networks and content providers slumped in May to 233,400 jobs on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, its lowest level since January 2022.
 
Staffing in the classification of web search portals and all other information services fell to 160,200 jobs in May on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, down sharply from its all-time high of 171,900 jobs last January.

Ad agencies

U.S. ad agency employment rose to 229,900 jobs in May, up 300 jobs for the month on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, reaching an all-time high. That followed a gain of 2,400 jobs in April.
 
BLS downwardly revised the April figure from a preliminary gain of 2,600 jobs reported a month ago.
 
BLS reports ad agency employment on a one-month lag, so June figures aren’t yet available. But the June increase in advertising, public relations 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, edged down to 3.6% in June from 3.7% in May.

U.S. employment

The nation in June added 209,000 jobs based on seasonally adjusted figures.
 
BLS said the economy gained 306,000 jobs in May (downwardly revised from 339,000 jobs) and 217,000 jobs in April (downwardly revised from 294,000 jobs).
 
BLS monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from 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 (156.2 million jobs in June) 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 Datacenter subscribers can see an expanded table showing advertising employment back to 2000 at AdAge.com/adjobs.