Markets

MDC Partners to Continue Axing Jobs; 1,300 Gone So Far

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: October 8, 2009 / 4:25 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

MDC Partners will continue its "proactive management of staff costs," a policy which has created 1,300 layoffs at the agency holding company, according to a recent presentation to investors. That presentation says (on page 13):

Headcount down 19% in last 18 months.

That number is similar to the number Adweek heard on MDC's Q2 conference call.

Nadal said MDC has cut 1,300 employees over the past 18 months and now has a headcount of 5,300.

If MDC previously had 6,600 employees and lost 1,300 of them, then nearly 20 percent of its staff has been laid off during the recession. The difference in the numbers could be attributed to the fact that even as it lays people off at one agency, another may be hiring. (BNET previously noted MDC was cutting jobs in April.)

It has been a sobering year for MDC, the corporate parent of Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners. It started 2009 predicting it would make $590-605 million in revenues, as much as 3 percent in growth. But by Q2 it reduced that guidance to $545-$575 million, a potential decline of 6.8 percent.