• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, May 10, 2021

The world learned Friday that about 266,000 jobs were added in the U.S. in April -- down from the estimate of 1 million anticipated.

Some say this raises questions about whether the economic recovery in a variety of sectors, including the advertising industry, is on track to recover.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have ended some jobs and created other opportunities, but automation and a variety of technologies have certainly changed the job outlook for the advertising and media industry.

Retailers and restaurants now find they can do more with fewer workers, and a Pew Research Center survey published in February suggests that about half of U.S. unemployed adults looking for a job are pessimistic about their prospects for future employment, although many employers suggest they cannot find qualified people to fill the spots.

Some businesses claim there is a worker shortage -- and that may be the case in certain industries.

Most workers say they have seriously considered changing fields or occupations since becoming unemployed, according to the study. Ad agencies say there are plenty of openings for the ideal candidate.

Performics, the performance marketing engine of Publicis Groupe, continues to hire based on the need to support new business, as well as organic growth of existing clients. Wawa convenience stores recently appointed Performics agency of record for paid search, ecommerce, SEO and programmatic display

Wawa is completely staffed, but open positions for other opportunities vary weekly.

Performics has more than 30 open positions in the U.S. These are positions around client service and job titles like media manager, media director, associate media manager, content manager, content director, and copywriter.

Merkle, on its jobs blog, shows more than 30 job openings just for specialists in the field of SEO, from lead managers to analysts, and those with knowledge of programmatic. There are nine openings in the field of paid search, and many more focused on specialties, as with Salesforce and Adobe.   

Horizon Media, prior to the pandemic outbreak, was like a magnet for attracting talent thanks to its award-winning culture, and 2021 is no different, according to Eileen Benwitt, executive vice president, chief talent officer at Horizon Media.

“We are onboarding several new accounts and hiring across all areas with a focus on performance media and emerging areas such as analytics and tech and talent attraction continues to be strong,” Benwitt wrote in an email to Search & Performance Marketing Daily. “Being an agency of belonging is at our core and more than 50% of 2021 hires are diverse. We will continue to make sure our culture remains relevant and uphold our brand as a community of diversity embracing the whole person to attract the best talent in the marketplace.”

Employers across a range of industries continue to complain about the difficulty in finding workers. On Friday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she believes the U.S. will reach full employment in 2022, but cautioned that the numbers show the U.S. is still losing jobs. She also cautions about overreacting to anecdotes of worker shortages.

One thing is certain -- in some sectors demand outpaces supply, Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor, a job listings website, told the arkansasonline.com. "That's something that is occurring across the economy, in semiconductors to lumber, and we're seeing a similar crunch in the labor market,” he said.