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In September, we found 121 jobs in PR

From agencies including Hard Numbers, Brunswick and Burson

After six months of flatlining, we’ve consistently noted that any shift in recruitment trends in the UK public relations agency market would be immediately apparent. This month, we report a dramatic shift for the first time since we started this data project.

Since March 2024, we’ve been monitoring job ads among the leading agencies in the UK to determine whether job data is a useful proxy for the health of the sector more broadly. The project aims to provide a leading indicator of the market.

It also fulfils the need for an aggregator for public relations job ads. We publish a full listing for job hunters at the start of each month. You can subscribe to get a copy.

There is a paucity of data to characterise the UK public relations industry. Public companies’ quarterly results and annual industry league tables are all lagging indicators that don’t help support real-time planning and decision-making.

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Our hunch is that recruitment investment corresponding to a rise in job ads indicates an improving market. A flat or month-by-month reduction in job ads shows a contraction.

For the first time since April, September has seen an uptick of almost 18 per cent in hiring plans among the Top 50 UK agencies.

Many factors could drive this change, including positive GDP and employment data. The new Government and the successful conclusion of wage negotiations in the public sector and among train operators are also likely significant.

The public relations services market is a segment of the professional services market. Government data showed an upturn of 1.1% in the three months to May, but this hasn’t been noticeable in the public relations industry.

A potential area for improvement of our dataset is to broaden the focus from large public relations agencies. These may benefit from international work and be insulated from the UK economy. We’ve opened the project to enable any agency to publicise its job ad to counter this issue.

You can submit a job via this link.

We’ll need to see several months’ worth of data before we know that the market is shifting, but for now, it’s a positive and welcome sign for the industry.

🗞️ Junior roles

Including intern, entry level, account executive

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