Encouraging Signs for PR Freelancers in the CIPR Report

The CIPR’s State of the Profession report has returned after taking a break in 2023 and paints a Goldilocks picture of the industry, but better news for PR Freelancers.

The stand out is the drop in average salaries of around £3000 since the 2022 report which with inflation having risen sharply and then more recently dropped back is a significant fall for many.

The twin figure with salaries is hours worked, with large percentages of people reporting they are working for longer, again reducing real salaries.

The figures which concern freelance PR consultants were more encouraging with more than the industry average reporting income stability in the last year and average salaries for freelancers at £65,971 although the report doesn’t show a comparison with 2022.

It also doesn’t allow real understanding of whether this is a freelancer’s turnover, gross profit or EBIT after pension payments and other non-cash benefits have been accounted for.

Treat this number with caution. Actually, treat all the salary numbers with caution are 16-24 year olds in PR really earning an average of £39000 per annum?

It’s also somewhat hard to reconcile the reported increases in fees by a lot of agencies with a generally lower salary level. Are agency owners enjoying a profits boom?

Thirty six per cent of PR freelancers reported increased earnings, fifty one percent reported they were stable and only 9 per cent reports a decrease.

This seems at odds with the general sentiment in the market which is that life has been very tough for freelancers for well over a year, something we can vouch for based on the number of client searches on The PR Cavalry platform which has only recently started to show an upward swing.

We are pleased to see both the number of clients searches increasing steadily and crucially the ratio of searches to freelancers being hire is also much healthier. We see this partly as a result of more confidence in the market and also as a result of our own investment in refining how our platform identifies and matches PR freelancers to client briefs.

Overall it feels like an industry that is not entirely seeing the good times rolling but able to see calmer waters ahead.