Research suggests the employment picture will be a little brighter for agency job seekers for the remainder of 2012.
According to The Creative Group’s latest Hiring Index for Marketing and Advertising Professionals, 14% of executives in this field plan to add full-time staff in the next three months, while 7% forecast staff reductions.
The resulting net 7% of executives anticipating hiring is up three points from Creative Group’s third quarter forecast. Much of the growth is on the agency side, with a net 21% planning to add full-time employees.
The area in greatest demand is account services, with 24% of respondents indicating they plan to add staff in this area, followed by brand and product management (23%), web design and production (21%) and social media (19%).
Those with web and social media skills have been harder to find and hire because these roles have been introduced to marketers relatively recently, said Alicia Brum, branch manager of Toronto-based The Creative Group, a recruitment firm that specializes in careers in marketing and advertising,” or just simply clients having a difficult time evaluating it.
“When [social media] first came out, even management wasn’t sure what to invest in it, what the return on investment was, what skill sets were needed to fulfill those roles and what the overall strategy was. So, until those things were defined, people were a little shy with regards to budget. Now that it’s no longer new, and a lot of these roles are being defined and qualified, they can see the return on investment and therefore are spending more on those areas.”
Rounding out the list of in-demand jobs are: public relations (17%), media services (16%), print design/production (15%), interactive media (12%), copywriting (12%), market research (12%), mobile applications development (11%), creative or art direction (10%).
Forty-two per cent of Creative Group’s respondents said it’s challenging for their firms to find skilled creative professionals, down eight points from the third-quarter forecast. Eighty-nine per cent said they are confident in their companies’ growth prospects for the fourth quarter, down one point from the previous quarter.
The quarterly survey, conducted by an independent research firm, is based on 250 telephone interviews—200 with marketing executives from companies with 100 or more employees and 50 with advertising executives at agencies with 20 or more employees.
