Major advertising firm slashes over 1,200 roles in latest blow to UK’s jobs market

ADVERTISING giant WPP has axed more than 1,200 jobs in the first half of this year as bosses battle to turn around the firm’s fortunes amid the rise of artificial intelligence. The London-based company revealed on Thursday that it had slashed 1,267 roles between January and June, wiping out 1.3% of its entire workforce. It leaves WPP with 97,388 staff on its books as of the end of June, marking a huge drop of more than 6,000 employees over the past year alone. The firm has been on a mission to slash staffing costs, and it appears to be paying off, with wage bills down 5.9% to £3.47billion for the first half of the year. Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! Bosses had already warned earlier this year that more job losses and asset sales were on the cards as part of a drive to simplify the business. WPP is targeting a whopping £500million in annual savings by 2028 as it battles to stay competitive. Despite the cost-cutting, pre-tax profits still slipped by 7.7% to £277million for the six-month period. The group’s preferred measure of sales, revenue less pass-through costs, tumbled 5.6% to £4.75billion. Big client sectors have also been ditching the ad giant, with telecoms, media and entertainment clients down 14.8%, financial services clients down 13.4%, and tech clients down 9.2%. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as WPP ramps up its use of artificial intelligence to help claw back business. Most read in Money The firm has struck fresh tech and data partnerships with Google, Meta and Amazon Web Services to weave generative AI tools into its platforms. Chief executive Cindy Rose said: “I am encouraged by our first-half performance which is in line with our expectations,” adding that the second quarter showed “a further sequential improvement in like-for-like growth.” Comment now