2024 Canada Job Market: Marketing Employment Trends

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Explore our Demand for Skilled Talent report to see what specializations employers need most.

Top marketing and creative employment trends
In-demand marketing jobs
2024 Marketing job trends: what managers are looking for
Strategic priorities for 2024
The rise of contract talent
About the Demand for Skilled Talent report

The demand for skilled talent remains high in 2024 for marketing and creative professionals in Canada. To meet their hiring goals, companies must continue finding innovative ways to attract and retain both long-term and short-term talent. Marketing and creative department managers, for both in-house and agencies, are recruiting for both permanent and contract positions in the second half of 2024. Their challenge will be the stiff competition from other firms for skilled marketing and creative expertise.

Employers should prepare to offer above-average compensation and hire quickly when they find skilled talent. Engaging recruiters to help tap into the pool of passive job seekers could prove more important than ever for marketing jobs. In addition, attracting skilled talent is increasingly about how well a company can provide a healthy work/life balance.

A big part of attracting and retaining talent is top-notch corporate culture and branding. Marketing and creative teams across Canada need highly skilled design and production talent to make their brands and products stand out for the rest of 2024 and into 2025. The reality for marketing team leaders? There is a lack of candidates with the years of experience required. According to the latest Robert Half Canada Salary Guide, 93 per cent of marketing and creative managers report challenges hiring skilled talent, primarily in digital marketing, content development, and digital and UX design and production.

A common tactic that hiring managers use to combat skill shortages, has been to hire entry-and middle-level talent with potential to learn the skills of the job. Although still a viable solution, candidates at this level should be aware that companies are not offering the same robust compensation packages they provided in recent years.

The following positions are in the top 10% of marketing and creative roles in demand for Canada, according to an analysis of thousands of job postings and Robert Half placements:

Account Supervisor

Content Manager

Digital Marketing Manager

Event Coordinator

Graphic Designer

Marketing Manager

Production Coordinator

Public Relations Director

What’s on the horizon for Canadian marketing and creative leaders in the second half of 2024?

55 per cent are hiring for new permanent roles

36 per cent are focused on filling vacated permanent positions

93 per cent report facing challenges in finding skilled talent

In 2024, marketing and creative leaders are setting their sights on the following areas that promise to shape the industry’s future in Canada:

1. Website and mobile application redesign

2. Digital marketing

3. Company rebranding

4. AI and machine learning

5. Marketing automation

Reflecting a key creative and marketing employment trend, 60 per cent of managers will hire more contract professionals in the second half of 2024. This strategic shift is driven by the need for specific expertise in areas essential to staying competitive in today's fast-paced market. It also provides the flexibility to quickly adjust to market trends and project needs.

Contract talent is particularly in demand for crucial marketing positions like brand managers and product marketing managers, along with roles in digital marketing, such as social media marketing and SEO specialists. Additionally, there's a growing emphasis on harnessing skills in marketing automation, highlighting the industry's focus on targeted outreach in the digital era.

According to Robert Half’s latest research on job optimism, more than half the workforce in Canada is eyeing a change, driven mainly by the allure of better compensation, flexible options and perks. To attract or retain them, companies must step up their game, offering competitive salaries, flexible work arrangements and clear paths for career advancement.

The Demand for Skilled Talent report by Robert Half is an authoritative source providing essential insights into 2024's employment trends. This report has offered a deep dive into Canada’s hiring landscape for over a decade, spotlighting challenges and strategies to attract and retain talent in today’s job market. It explores what employees seek in their careers, identifies common recruitment errors and suggests solutions. The report spans sectors like finance, technology, marketing, legal and human resources, proving crucial for business leaders and managers.

Data methodology

This report's in-demand role data is collated from Robert Half placements, Statistics Canada information, and job postings TalentNeuron. It encompasses over one hundred thousand new positions from hundreds of independent job boards and company websites, including over 8,000 placements from Robert Half Canada. Positions are categorized to over 350 job titles within Robert Half Canada’s 2024 Salary Guide using a proprietary mapping methodology that employs state-of-the-art large language models. This dataset includes roles across the administrative and customer support, finance and accounting, human resources, legal, marketing and creative, and technology professions.

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