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2024 U.S. Marketing Jobs Report
The State of Marketing Jobs: Chaos, Change & Opportunity
Michael Wright
January 24, 2025
I don’t wish to get overly sentimental—after all, we Brits tend to keep our emotions neatly tucked away🤫. But this edition? It’s taken a metric ton of effort, and that’s all because of YOU.
When we launched CMO Ladder in November 2023, our goal was simple: create value beyond just the handful of executive hires we make each year. In executive recruiting, you might only hire 10-12 people annually, but we interact with hundreds of brilliant marketers. That’s why we started CMO Ladder—to bring you insights, trends, and tangible career value. What we didn’t expect was to build a regular readership of nearly 550 of you. Your support fuels our continued efforts in tracking job data and marketing leadership moves.
We’re not the only ones excited—there’s a webinar at ANA; if you are a member, we will see you on the 29th!
So, without further ado, let’s rip the wrapping off this prezzie and get into it.
Let’s talk job numbers—the lifeblood of any economy. They dictate everything from interest rates and government spending to housing prices and consumer confidence. Yet, when you take a closer look at how these figures are produced, it’s hard not to question the reliability of such a limited sample size when making major decisions.
Take the unemployment rate, courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Every month, they publish the Employment Situation Report based on a survey of 60,000 households. Let’s crunch the numbers:
60,000 households × 2.5 people per household ÷ 334.9 million total U.S. population = 0.045% coverage.
The average U.S. town has about 5,000 people. That means to determine unemployment in a town; the survey reaches… 2.24 people. Yep, two and a quarter.
And here’s the kicker: the response rate has been declining for years. As of December 2024, a third of those surveyed didn’t respond. That means, in our hypothetical town, only 1.54 people’s answers are shaping the unemployment rate. Feeling confident yet?
What about hiring demand? For that, we turn to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), another BLS gem. This one surveys 21,000 employers in a country with 33.2 million businesses. That’s a sample size of 0.06%. Translated to our town of 5,000 people (which has around 225 businesses), that means they’ve surveyed… 0.14 businesses. Barely enough for a statistically significant water cooler conversation.
Now, we’re not here to throw shade at the BLS—they’ve been doing things this way for over a century, and with budget cuts looming, via the D.O.G.E we’re not expecting real-time AI-powered job tracking anytime soon. But here’s the problem: the job market is undergoing a seismic shift. AI, layoffs, RTO mandates, and marketing’s ever-evolving role make it a confusing time for everyone in our industry.
Without reliable data, we’re left to navigate by anecdotes, gut feelings, and LinkedIn gossip. And that’s no way to plan a career, hire strategically, or anticipate what’s next.
Fortunately, our friends at Aspen Technology Labs have a better approach. They scrape data directly from company career pages and ATS systems—no job boards, no recruiter fluff. Their data covers roughly 70% of all U.S. jobs, which, let’s be honest, is leagues ahead of a sample size that fits in a minivan.
Today, we’re sharing our year-end analysis of 262,000+ marketing jobs from 2024. A proper deep dive into salaries, job levels, disciplines, remote work, and more—so we can all step into 2025 with a clearer view of where the marketing job market is really headed.
The Big Takeaways
1. Marketing Job Growth (Steady but Shifting)
262,020 active marketing jobs in 2024, with 234,807 new listings—a 3.7% increase from 2023.
Senior marketing roles (Director level and above) saw a 7.8% jump in new job postings.
Job postings peaked on April 8, 2024 (36,304 live jobs), with the lowest count on Jan 1 (28,576 jobs)—a sign of typical hiring cycles.
Year-end numbers (Dec 30) showed 32,363 job openings, a 13.3% increase YoY, with senior marketing roles rising 18.5% YoY. The demand for top-tier marketers? Still strong.
2. Hiring Is Moving Faster
Jobs are staying on the market for 28 days on average—8 days shorter than in 2023. Companies are making decisions quicker [someone should tell our clients lol]
3. Remote Work: Here to Stay (Sort Of)
13.6% of all marketing jobs were remote—a slight uptick (+1.2 percentage points YoY).
The stability suggests remote work isn’t vanishing, but whispers of an in-office push are growing louder.
4. Salary Transparency on the Rise
Nearly half of all marketing jobs (45.6%) now list salaries, up 9.7 percentage points from last year. Even companies without legal mandates are feeling the pressure to disclose pay, and rightly so!
The median marketing salary hit $81,505, an 8.7% YoY increase, far outpacing the national salary growth rate (3.9%).
5. Junior Roles Are Safe—It's the Execs Who Should Worry
Entry-level roles grew 14.7% YoY, with a 4.5% pay bump—debunking fears that AI is wiping out junior marketing jobs.
Specialist/Senior Associate roles saw the highest growth at 27.4%.
Senior Director/VP roles surged 19.3%, and Director-level roles grew 18.4% YoY.
EVP/SVP roles? Slowest growth (8.5%), with a 14.8% drop in median salary. Companies are tightening exec paychecks instead of axing junior staff.
6. Hot (and Not) Marketing Disciplines
🔥 High-Growth Areas:
Media (+55.9%): Paid media and digital advertising investments are booming, albeit from a low baseline volume.
Growth Marketing (+30.7%): Customer acquisition is king.
Product Marketing (+28.7%): Product-led growth strategies are thriving.
❄️ Declining Fields:
Partner/Channel Marketing (-11.7%): Companies are shifting away from traditional outreach strategies.
Field Marketing (-10.1%): In-person events and roadshows are losing steam.
💰 Best-Paid Disciplines:
Product Marketing, Analytical Marketing, and Partner & Channel Marketing rank among the highest-paid marketing roles.
7. Same Pay, Double Work
Dual-function roles (e.g., PR & Brand, Growth & Content) surged 20.3% YoY. Companies want marketers who can wear multiple hats.
8. Geography Matters
Top 3 hiring states: California, New York, Texas—accounting for 31% of all U.S. marketing jobs.
Biggest YoY growth: California (+25.4%), Florida (+21.5%), Virginia (+19.3%).
Biggest median salary growth: Virginia (+13.3%), Pennsylvania (+9.3%), New York (+8.1%).
Job volume correlates with CMO hiring trends—where the CMOs go, marketing jobs follow.
Final Thoughts: What This Means for You
The 2024 marketing job market stayed dynamic, defying fears of AI-driven job cuts. Entry-level hiring remains strong, salary transparency is the new norm, and hiring speed is accelerating. Remote work is stabilizing, while executive-level pay is seeing some belt-tightening.
For marketers looking to make a move, timing matters—hiring dips in Q4 but picks up fast in the new year. And if you're eyeing a leadership role, be ready to juggle multiple hats—hybrid skills are the future.
Stay sharp, stay informed, and stay ahead. The marketing job market isn’t slowing down anytime soon, we think.
Oh, if you got value from this NL, help us grow our audience! Please share it in your Slack Channels, LinkedIn networks and so on. Thanks for having our back 😇
