Digital advertising industry shifts focus toward hiring juniors amid scarce job market
Despite a rise in job vacancies, the Australian digital advertising and ad tech industry is facing a shrinking job market.
Vacancies increased slightly from 4.5% to 4.6% in 2024, but the IAB’s 2024 Industry Talent Report, released on Thursday, reveals that sector-wide redundancies have reduced the overall workforce, leaving fewer jobs available compared to last year.
According to IAB, six in ten companies hope to increase headcount in the next six months, with over three-quarters of open positions targeting candidates with 1-5 years of experience. The most in-demand group are people with 3-5 years’ experience.
There is a sense of cautious optimism among companies regarding staffing levels, with only 11% looking to slightly decrease their workforce.
This suggests a shift from 2023 when a range of companies indicated they thought AI may directly reduce the number of people in their teams.
Instead, this year, most companies are planning for AI to improve productivity without impacting current staffing levels.
The report also revealed the average salary increase over the last 12 months was 3.8%, down from 4.2% in the previous year.
IAB Australia CEO Gai Le Roy said: “Over the last 12 months, the digital advertising industry and ad tech talent market has felt the impact of ongoing global and local layoffs, but it is encouraging to see there’s increased optimism for modest increases in staffing levels from well over half of the industry.”
The report also found that women in senior management roles dropped to 34% (from 38% in 2023), but female representation in commercial roles grew to 53%, and in product roles increased to 48%. Additionally, tech and engineering roles saw female representation rise from 13% in 2022 to 22% in 2024.
“Unfortunately, there has been a dip in the number of women in senior management positions, although it’s encouraging to see continued positive movement in gender representation across the wider industry, particularly in product and engineering roles,” Le Roy added.
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They aren’t real vacancies. It’s a rising issue across the country and the rest of the world. Jobs are being made redundant, people aren’t being replaced, and those jobs you’re seeing posted are just the carrot dangling to keep the remaining staff placated because *they think* someone else is coming (they arent)
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