New data from the CIPR’s 2024 State of the Profession report has highlighted an ethnicity training gap across the PR industry, as 47% of BAME PR professionals had training requests denied, compared to only 36% of their white counterparts.

The industry body, in partnership with Chalkstream, surveyed 2,016 PR professionals and found a “significant and worrying” gap between white PR professionals and other ethnic minority groups as 81% received training compared to only 74% of BAME professionals.

However, it also found a growing skills gap in the sector, as 74% of in-house professionals and 60% of agency professionals claim their teams are experiencing a skills shortage. The shortages are broken down below:

• Artificial intelligence 36%

• Digital PR, social media 30%

• Audio visual media 23%

• Equality, diversity, inclusion 19%

• Planning, strategy, campaigns 19%

• Media liaison 18%

• Advertising, marketing, branding 17%

• Risk, issues, crisis, reputation management 17%

• Behavioural psychology 17%

• Internal communication 17%

Meanwhile, while specific skill sets in AI are needed in the profession, agencies and consultancies are less likely to have an AI policy compared to other organisation types, with professionals working in agencies and consultancies also less likely to have received training compared to those in other types of organisations.

Encouragingly, work/life balance seems to be improving as 30% of independent practitioners say their working hours have reduced in the last 12 months, but growth has slowed as 38% in agencies and consultancies said their organisation is growing compared to 73% in 2022

The gender pay gap has been reduced significantly, and currently sits at £3,894, down from £7,074 in 2022.

Rachael Clamp, president at CIPR said: “This year's survey clearly highlights that, depending on the type of organisation you work for, working in PR looks very different from professional to professional. While this makes it challenging to speak of the PR profession as one, it does demonstrate the value and strength of a body like the CIPR to unify a diverse and broad membership.

"The data highlights the increasingly respected and valued role of PR. However, the challenging working environment cannot be ignored as shown in the drop in average salary and a still-too-high gender pay gap. It also presents some worrying data on who gets access to training. With the majority of practitioners identifying a skills gap within their organisations, and as the economy shows signs of recovery, organisations should be investing in training opportunities and making sure those are accessible for all as well as individual practitioners committing to their own development."