From Marketwatch's report on IPG's earnings release:

"Severance charges also stung as the company fired people in droves: It has paid out approximately $120 million related to the layoffs of 4,100 employees, or 9% of the total, over the last nine months..."

From MediaPost:

"Spending on salaries and related costs, excluding severance payments, was down nearly 10% in the second quarter. But Roth reiterated what IPG has conveyed before: There is only so much trimming in personnel costs that can be done without hurting business significantly. Roth said it is "not advisable in the service business to take out costs on pace with the level of revenue decline we saw in the second quarter, without risking a deterioration in the talent base and the quality of service we deliver to clients."

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On a FY basis, we should anticipate staff cuts of about 12% across the organization. And this is very much a bloodbath. This is not strategic staff management, at all. These are wholesale layoffs and they are likely jobs that will never return.

What this means is that available staff remaining, must now work harder and longer to sustain what revenues can still be had. Work weeks are extended to provide "value" to clients: even though clients agree to pay for a scope of work based on a 35-hr billable work week per employee, they are likely receiving 45 hrs, 55 hrs, etc. And much more in some cases, no doubt. In fact, the financial and business managers in IPG will actually ENCOURAGE this -- because it can ludicrously demonstrate "PRODUCTIVITY". These types of "productivity" metrics are standard fare at every big agency in the holding companies. And they could more-properly be lablelled "Employee Abuse Metrics".

Roth is referring to the fact that this is simply unsustainable. A $70K/yr art director, working a 60 hr week, is earning only 3X the US Federal minimum wage.
Under these working conditions, IPG cannot attract or retain "talent". This is not the higher end marketing consultancy and services business, certainly not anymore. This is high volume grunt work increasingly performed by interchangeable employees, freelancers and temporary workers.

The service level and advisory services performed by IPG, and other companies like it, have been deteriorating for years.

Luv, Hammer