MediaTel

The latest IPA Industry Census shows that smaller agencies appear to have escaped the brunt of last year's downturn, increasing the size of their workforce during 2002.

According to the report, small and medium sized agencies experienced a respective 4% and 5% increase in the number of people they employed last year, compared to large agencies (with a gross income of over £18 million), which saw a 4% decline in employees. Overall, the IPA estimates that there was a 2.5% decline in employee-base during 2002.

It is understood that many larger agencies faced pressure to downsize from their US parent companies, which bore the brunt of the post September 11 ad recession.

According to Hamish Pringle, director general of the IPA: "The 2002 figures reflect the tough economic market environment, but some people may be surprised that the overall decline on a like-for-like basis has been relatively small. We believe this reflects the diversity of IPA member agencies and the fact that there are areas of growth as well as decline."

The IPA also gave the first ethnic breakdown of the marketing and communications industry, as well as a gender breakdown between job roles.

The Census revealed that the advertising industry still fails to reflect the cultural diversity of the population that it targets, with almost 96% of employees coming from a white, British background.

IPA President, Stephen Woodford, commented: "We are hoping to encourage greater ethnic diversity and the positive news from IPA-funded qualitative research is that ethnic minority employees find the agency business one in which talent thrives regardless of background. We will use this data as a benchmark and as a result of the IPA's strategy to encourage more entrants from the ethnic minorities, we hope to see increasing employment in agencies in future years."

David Fletcher, head of Medialab at Mediaedge: cia recently criticised the lack of ethnic diversity in advertising (see MRG Conference: Advertising Lacks Ethnic Diversity), noting that only 13% of advertising appears to represent people in minority communities.

The new figures also reveal that although women continue to make up almost 50% of agency staff, men continue to disproportionately dominate coveted creative positions. According to the survey, 86% of art directors and 62% of designers are male, while woman account for only 10% of senior executive positions.

A recent survey by the AAR showed that the majority of UK agencies managed to increase or sustain their investment in marketing and new business during 2002 (see Agencies Maintain New Business Spend During 2002).

IPA: 020 7235 7020 www.ipa.co.uk

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