Many careers in advertising and marketing and promoting start with an internship. At a time when the share of younger folks working within the trade is reducing, it ought to come as no shock that internships are additionally disappearing.
Figures from employment knowledge supplier Dwell Information Applied sciences present a year-over-year decline in internships at U.S. advertising and marketing and promoting corporations since 2022.
Along with the general decline, the seasonal spike in internships in the course of the summer season has additionally change into much less pronounced lately. In 2022, the variety of interns in June was practically 125% greater than these in January of that very same 12 months. This 12 months, nonetheless, advertising and marketing and promoting internships in June had been up solely 40% in comparison with the start of 2025.
To reach at these findings, Dwell Information Applied sciences examined publicly accessible data from a number of U.S. advertising and marketing and promoting corporations. The record consists of advert giants IPG and Omnicom, together with Publicis businesses Digitas and Starcom.
Internships at advertising and marketing and promoting businesses seem like dropping for a number of causes. One is corporations’ rising push to decrease labor prices via layoffs, consolidation, and synthetic intelligence. Due to that, corporations are much less prone to spend money on early-career workers, in line with analysts.
“The continued infusion of AI and automation has led to a decline in entry-level roles for a lot of organizations, with hiring precedence shifting to mid- and senior-level positions,” mentioned Justin Roberts, affiliate vice chairman of worldwide tradition and inclusion at impartial media company Kepler.
Extra numbers from Dwell Information Applied sciences illustrate this shift. Workers positions at U.S. advertising and marketing and promoting companies have diminished practically 11% since January 2022. Supervisor and director jobs, in the meantime, have remained comparatively regular throughout the identical interval.
“The entry-level crunch has a trickle-down impact,” mentioned J. Scott Hamilton, president and CEO of Dwell Information Applied sciences. “With no junior roles to fill subsequent 12 months, there will probably be fewer internships this 12 months.”
Along with a decline in accessible roles, there’s much less demand for the sorts of internships many businesses provide—notably unpaid ones.
Laura Emanuel, managing director at Pink Thread PR, mentioned candidates used to clamor for the company’s unpaid internship. She remembers working with a gaggle of three or 4 interns every season. Deciding who to choose from a pool of candidates was tough.
“Ten years in the past, we might promote our internships with a single social publish and be inundated with keen, bold faculty college students pitching themselves for the position,” Emanuel mentioned. “It was a really aggressive search.”
That’s now not the case. Now, the general public relations company appears to herald two folks each time this system runs. Whereas the part-time association doesn’t present monetary compensation, it offers interns priceless expertise engaged on actual shopper initiatives, Emanuel mentioned.
The decline in internships coincides with a dip in younger staff. Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics present workers aged 20-24 held 10.5% of all jobs in promoting, public relations, and different associated providers in 2019. In 2024, the identical group represented simply 6.5% of the workforce.
Throughout this identical five-year interval, the median age of individuals employed within the advert trade elevated to 39.8 from 38.5.
Regardless of total traits, internships aren’t vanishing in every single place. Advert holding firm Stagwell, for example, stories its internship program has been rising. Up to now this 12 months, it’s taken in round 150 interns and apprentices throughout its community of U.S. businesses.
“Expertise wants are extra crucial than ever because the panorama quickly adjustments with shifting markets and advances in automation,” mentioned Stephanie Howley, chief folks officer at Stagwell.
Howley famous Stagwell plans to broaden its relationships with universities and host extra agency-specific occasions to proceed constructing connections with younger folks inquisitive about a profession in promoting.
In an analogous try to draw and nurture rising expertise, Kepler runs a free eight-week coaching program known as Kepler U, which presents aspiring digital entrepreneurs hands-on expertise, one-on-one mentorship, and entry to trade thought leaders via panel discussions. Since debuting in 2021, Kepler U has helped greater than 300 folks safe full-time roles within the trade, in line with the corporate.
“Younger professionals have been the spine of our trade for many years,” mentioned Roberts, the Kepler affiliate vice chairman. “My honest hope is we don’t lose sight of the appreciable want for his or her contributions within the years to return.”
