Burnout in Public Relations: Why Communications Professionals Are Leaving the Industry

PR burnout is the chronic exhaustion and disengagement reported by public relations and communications professionals across agency and in-house roles. In 2024, half of the 1,604 PR professionals surveyed by Muck Rack said they had considered quitting their jobs, and 75% of agency communicators rated their stress at 8 out of 10.

By EPR Editorial Team · Edited on Jun 18, 2026.

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The Numbers Behind PR's Exit Wave

Muck Rack's August 2024 State of Work-Life Balance in PR survey, conducted across 1,604 communications professionals between April 4 and May 10, found that 44% had already quit a job that year and 50% had considered it. 75% of agency professionals report stress at 8 out of 10. 71% of in-house communicators report high stress, with 6 the most common rating. 58% of all respondents work more than 40 hours per week, and 10% work over 51 hours. Roughly 8 in 10 work outside regular business hours at least once a week.

"Burnout is consistent across both brands and agencies, and also across seniority levels." — Muck Rack, State of Work-Life Balance in PR, August 2024.

The Institute for Public Relations and The Grossman Group Employee Engagement in the Communications Industry study, surveying more than 300 communications professionals between February and August 2024, found that 48% feel stressed at work, 28% report frequent burnout, and 36% are likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months. 60% expect their workload to increase over the next year. Only 35% are committed to staying with their current organization.

A joint PRCA and CIPR survey found that 91% of PR professionals reported poor mental health in the past year.

Agency Life Carries the Heaviest Load

Forecast industry data puts marketing and advertising's global burnout rate at 69.6%. The 2025 Adweek agency outlook found that 29% of agency workers believe industry consolidation will hurt their jobs, and more than a third are actively considering leaving the industry. WPP and Interpublic Group each cut thousands of staff in the first half of 2025, on top of 2024 reductions. US ad agency employment dropped 3% between March 2023 and March 2025.

Compensation widens the gap. Muck Rack puts the average PR salary at $90,000. Brand-side communicators earn $110,000 on average. Agency-side communicators earn $83,500. That $26,500 spread is the single most consistent predictor of mid-career exits from agencies into corporate communications and in-house roles.

Remote Work and the Return-to-Office Fight

Most PR professionals want hybrid arrangements. Muck Rack found that a majority of in-house and agency communicators prefer hybrid work, but less than half report it as the norm. The return-to-office mandate has become a retention flashpoint at every major holding company. Republic of Media reintroduced timesheets in 2025 for the first time since launching in 2012, citing the need to understand workload distribution. The Creative Communications Union warns that timesheet data captures only a fraction of the actual hours worked.

AI Overload

Adoption of AI tools — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Jasper, Synthesia — has added a layer of pressure rather than relieving it. Communicators are expected to produce more output, faster, while learning new platforms and managing rising volumes of AI-generated client requests. Mercer's 2024 workforce trends report estimated that more than 80% of employees across industries are at risk of burnout. PR sits at the front edge of that curve because the field absorbs every new platform shift first.

Retention Strategies That Actually Work

The 2024 Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations study found that communicators working under empathic leaders report higher organizational commitment, better mental health, and lower turnover intentions. PRSA has called for normalizing rest and recovery rather than rewarding presenteeism.

"Communication professionals working for empathic leaders report higher organizational commitment, better mental health and lower turnover intentions." — Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, 2024.

Five interventions appear consistently across retention research:

• Workload caps and timesheet honesty. Agencies that monitor actual hours, not billed hours, retain mid-level talent longer.
• Clear advancement paths. 35% of communicators cite lack of advancement as their primary dissatisfaction, per IPR.
• Compensation transparency. The $26,500 gap between brand and agency salaries is the single biggest retention risk for senior agency staff.
• Hybrid by default. Less than half of agencies offer the hybrid model their staff prefer.
• Manager training over compliance training. Empathic leadership correlates with lower turnover in every Plank Center cohort.