The recession may have left many marketers with depleted budgets, but it was agencies that took the brunt of the recession pain, cutting more than 20,000 jobs over the last two years as small agencies and regional offices closed their doors for good.
Ad agency jobs declined 14 percent since December 2007, a loss of approximately 26,300 positions, Ad Age reports. In the first three quarters of 2009 alone, agency employment dropped nearly 8 percent.
The silver lining is that interest in digital is growing. Publicis Groupe purchased Razorfish from Microsoft earlier this year, and marketers are looking for digital prowess when selecting an agency to work with, according to Ad Age. Digital agency revenue totaled $4.04 billion this year.