Research Reveals Half Of Agency Employees Are Under 30

New research from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has revealed that the advertising industry is dominated by young white people, with just under 50% of agency employees aged under 30.

The IPA’s 2004 Agency Census states that the mean age of workers in the nation’s media agencies is 33.6, with 19% aged over 40 and just 6% aged over 50.

Only 92 out of 237 agencies questionned by the IPA provided information on their company’s ethic breakdown, revealing that 94.9% of employees are white, 1.7% Asian, 1.9% black, 0.9% of mixed origin and 0.7% from other backgrounds.

The report shows that there are 15,190 individuals employed in 234 IPA member agencies as at 1 September 2004, compared with 14,036 in 220 agencies in 2003. It states that there are over 750 temps and freelancers working in IPA member agencies, making an average of 3.2 per agency.

The IPA identify that 74% of employees work in creative and full-service agencies, out of which 1,637 are employed in 18 direct marketing/integrated agencies, 220 in 8 digital/interactive 8 agencies and 47 in 3 healthcare agencies. The remaining 26% of the employed base are to be found in 57 media agencies.

A total of 74% of the employee base are in London, resulting in the average agency size in the capital rising from 37.5 in 2003 to 41.4 in 2004. The report reveals that 22% of staff are employed in account management, 16% in media, 13% in creative and 12% in creative sales.

Women continue to take up approximately half of the agency work force and the IPA estimate there to be 550 first year trainees, comprising of 3.7% of the total workforce. This figure compares to 449 in 2003.

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

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