What will the marketing recruitment landscape look like in 2023? By many accounts it’s an uncertain picture, with the impact of budget cuts, rising costs and inflation difficult to determine.

While many brands cut back on hiring in 2020 to mitigate the impact of Covid-19, 2021 witnessed a rise in recruitment. Recruiters report 2022 has been a slightly more stable year.

However, according to IPA Bellwether data gathered exclusively for Marketing Week in October, there has been a “material deterioration” in brands’ hiring plans.

The data found 28% of surveyed firms intend to increase their workforce by the start of 2023, with 18% anticipating job cuts and over half (54%) expecting no change. A net balance of 10.1% of marketers expect employment at their own companies to be higher in three months’ time, the lowest net balance since the first quarter of 2021.

EMEA CEO at global executive search firm the Grace Blue Partnership, Sarah Skinner, disagrees with the data: “At the senior level, there is absolutely still a demand for marketers.”

Skinner explains the UK does, however, seem more cautious than other countries given the current economic headwinds.

Associate director at recruiter Fortune Hill, John Hunter, says the mood among brands when it comes to hiring is “really mixed at present”. He explains organisations tend to fall into three camps.

“The brave ones that will invest through a downturn and recognise it’s essential to have the best people on their team. Those that will reduce investment and are unlikely to do much hiring. And those that are making reductions in headcount,” Hunter explains.

Paws Group CMO Richard Clark started a WhatsApp marketing community group in lockdown, which now spans 100 plus senior marketers. He explains marketers are worried about where the economy is heading, referencing the likes of clothing retailer Joules falling into administration as having a concerning ripple effect on marketers’ moods and expectations going into the new year.

He suggests there’s a similar feeling to the start of lockdown. Covid-19 led some marketers to postpone the “lateral rotation of roles” due to worries about what could happen if they lost a stable job, says Clark. He believes this is starting to happen again.

“Even when people are unhappy in their current role, because of the recession they’re a bit more reluctant to take that jump,” he says.

The start of the year is often a boom time for recruiters. However, Clark suggests marketers are worried that might not be the same in 2023.

“I do genuinely think there’s a lot of people either sticking, or willing to take the cut, not necessarily in salary but a cut in terms of expectations,” he adds.

What’s happening to roles?

According to LinkedIn data published in September, an understanding of digital marketing is perceived by marketers to be the most in-demand skill for employers, followed by social media marketing and search engine optimisation.

In 2015, social media marketing was the top skill, followed by digital marketing. SEO was a new addition to the list for 2022, alongside Adobe Photoshop, content marketing, Google Analytics and corporate communications.

Hunter is, however, noticing a drop off in demand for senior digital acquisition talent, such as director of growth marketing and performance marketing roles. He says this relates to the impact of Covid, which caused a boom in demand for bringing such roles into business, “often at a premium” due to the scale of competition.

Now, businesses are being cost conscious, Hunter says, focusing on engaging with their current customers versus driving acquisition.

Marketing director at alcohol free beer brand Lucky Saint, Kerttu Inkeroinen,  is currently hiring across PR, social media, growth marketing and insights. While for Lucky Saint it’s a story of hiring and growth, for other businesses she is seeing the opposite trend.

Read the full report here