Do These Holding Company Numbers Indicate Global Recession in 2013?

It's been long understood that the advertising business is a leading indicator of an oncoming recession (and a lagging indicator of it's end). Business Insider has gathered together the Q3 numbers from the four largest agency holding companies and the outlook isn't pretty. Having barely recovered from the last recession, if these numbers are to be believed, we may be headed for another in 2013.

Taking a look at WPP Group, Omnicom, Interpublic and Publicis, Business Insider compiled a graph that tracks the ups and downs of the four holding companies and recent numbers all indicate we may be headed for the crapper again very soon.

It's not all doom and gloom, though. While IPG sees a 2.7% drop in U.S. revenue for the nine month period ending September 30, Publicis sees U.S. growth of 2.4%. Much of the declines across the four holding companies are seen in Europe with healthier indicators for Asia and the UK.

Check out their full analysis here.