Workforce report 2024:
How marketers survived a turbulent year

With global inflation at record levels, a cost-of-living crisis and economic uncertainty, 2023 was a challenging year for the advertising industry. 

As a result, budgets were squeezed, recruitment stagnated and many brands and agencies laid off staff, which led to marketers becoming increasingly cautious with spend.

While figures from the Advertising Association and Warc showed UK adspend grew by 6.1% in 2023, in real terms, this was a 1.2% contraction after taking into account inflation, which lagged the flat 0.1% activity witnessed across the economy.

This mirrors trends seen in recruitment and salaries, with both seeing a noticeable decline last year. Coupled with the emergence of AI tools, many started to look at whether their marketing and agency ecosystem is fit for purpose. 

So, what impact has all this had on the performance marketing workforce?

PMW’s workforce series analyses the trends across the sector using data from its own jobs board. Each week, we will dive into numerous areas, including pay, number of jobs, skills and diversity, to find out the state of the industry’s workforce.

Jodie Clayton from Major Players also joins PMW's Unlocked podcast to chat about the influence of AI on the marketing workforce.