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Ad Industry Adds 800 Jobs in September

For the first month in a year, the advertising industry added jobs in September.

The industry, which includes advertising, marketing services and media, added 800 jobs, the first gain since October 2008, according to AdAge’s DataCenter analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The ad industry’s media sectors added 3,000 jobs, while advertising and marketing-services sectors cut 2,200 jobs for the month.

The newspaper sector actually saw an increase, its first since November of 2007, growing by 900 jobs.

But, while the economy is growing and the pace of job cuts is easing, more people are still getting fired than hired, and the U.S. unemployment rate has reached 10.2% - its highest level since 1983.

Meanwhile, ad industry employment remains well below pre-recession levels. Overall, the industry has cut 11.4% of positions since the recession began. Within that, media has cut 12.8% of jobs and advertising/marketing services has cut 9.8% of jobs.

Information from recent recessions hints at a slow ad employment recovery. Ad industry employment did not bottom out until 11 months after the end of the 1990-91 recession, and did not bottom out until 26 months after the end of the 2001 recession.

The current recession likely ended in Q3 of this year, which means ad employment may not hit bottom until next year or even 2011.

While ad industry employment may be headed for more trying times, global ad spending is expected to begin to recover in 2010. ZenithOptimedia predicts that global ad growth will be 0.5% in 2010, up from an expected decline of 10% this year.