Misery in Professional Services Loves Company - PR Agencies Also Are Experiencing 2023 as Tough for Landing New Business

 Not only is the golden age over for professional services management consulting and law. The speculation on professional anonymous networks is that there might not be another one of those. 

The structure of demand has mutated too much + generative AI is a wild card in how much revenue it can prevent getting into the hands of the top layers. There are exceptions but they are few. Among them management consultant Deloitte has been buzzy. Law firm Paul Weiss seems to be very confident about PE growth especially in Europe, recently paying big bucks to raid global talent in that niche. Alternate investment player Apollo is gushing. 

Well, this weekend the joy of someone else's misery can fill the land. Management consultants on the bench or already off the bench onto the beach of unemployment as well as junior lawyers who beg for assignments and can't land enough of them can pore over the sad story of the once-booming public relations agencies. 

The RSW/US Annual Report on New Business in  PR for 2023 is dismal. 58% admit that 2023 was brutal for developing new business. That's up from 43% last year. Also there has been a 41% decline in the value of that business. Closing the transactions is taking longer. Some of us recall big kahuna Edelman even had cut loose more than 200. 

This slowdown, of course, bleeds into other niches. Some content-creators admit on LinkedIn that the "faucet has run dry." 

About 16 months ago I sized up the confluence of forces undermining work opportunities in communications. So I shifted the ratio. I began to invest 40% or less of my resources and time in communications and the rest in coaching and Tarot reading. That panned out. That is, until July 2023. There has been a slowdown. In response I reset parts of the enterprises. Things picked up. September has been strong. 

Among my coaching clients those experiencing the least decline in either hours or compensation or work conditions are in the trades. The categories include work on pipelines, roofing, waterproofing, trucking and shipping containers. 

Meanwhile, both the blue-collars and we Knowledge (and Mystical) Workers are watching how much UAW head Shawn Fain can pull off. Already he has become the hero of our scary times. Blackrock's Larry Fink labels this era as one of unprecedented fear.

Data or the gut for your careers and communications? Both of course. Complimentary consultation with intuitive coach, content-creator, and Tarot reader Jane Genova (text 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com).


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