Agencies Have Cut 24,100 Jobs Since Recession Began

(MoneyWatch)  Since the recession began, 24,100 ad agency jobs have been lost. In all ad-related jobs, including media, losses have topped 65,100, according to Ad Age.

The numbers are not unexpected, but they do indicate that agencies are severely under-reporting the number of people they let go. BNET's Ad Agency Layoff Counter topped 7,000 jobs lost last week. That counter measures publicly reported job losses at agencies. The difference between the two numbers are the jobs being lost at agencies that are keeping their troubles quiet.

Ad Age's numbers are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There's a handy Excel spreadsheet you can download here. Like all stats, they can be manipulated. If you break out the agency-only jobs on the sheet (ignoring the media jobs) then it would appear based on the data Ad Age provided that 35,800 jobs have been lost since June 2008.

But if you cut the numbers down to only ad agencies, then only 6,000 jobs have been lost, Ad Age notes.

Either way, the report notes that the ad biz is doing worse than the overall economy. The U.S. economy lost 2.6 percent of its jobs in the recession, but the ad world has lost 3.1 percent.

Who is doing well? Consultants and PR people -- employment rose in those occupations.