Ever since the news of the recession broke out, I have been hearing comments and reading articles that the death of public relations is among us. The word on the street is that companies are having to downsize and restructure their business, which means the PR department is the first one to boot. I have also been hearing that PR agencies are lacking in company earnings. For example, if you take a look at the “Earnings” section on the PRWeek Web Site(http://www.prweekus.com/earnings/topic/33/) you will see that almost every single agency listed is facing a decline in revenue.
I refused to believe all of this “PR death” talk, so I decided to do my own research. I visited the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and what I found was quite surprising.
According to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition, “Employment of public relations specialists is expected to grow by 18 percent from 2006 to 2016, faster than average for all occupations. The need for good public relations in an increasingly competitive business environment should spur demand for these workers in organizations of all types and sizes. Those with additional language capabilities also are in great demand.”
On the other hand, the BLS also states that there will be a continuation of “keen” competition for entry-level public relations positions due to the number of qualified candidates exceeding the number of job openings.
There you go. The death of PR is NOT among us. Even the government tells us so and if you can’t believe the government, then who can you believe?
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