2025 Canada Marketing and Creative Job Trends

2.5%* March 2025 unemployment rate

Marketing and creative leaders are up against budget constraints, the shift toward AI-powered marketing solutions and skills gaps. Recruiting people with the needed creative vision, technical know-how, and business acumen continues to be difficult due to low unemployment rates for the field and the constant evolution of digital platforms and technologies.

These pressures coincide with rising consumer demand for hyper-personalized experiences. Marketing teams must also implement AI strategically and consistently with their companies’ brands and also balance innovation with maintaining authentic, human connections that resonate with their audiences.

Strategic priorities for 2025

Marketing and creative leaders shared what they’re focusing on this year:

Marketing automation

Website or mobile applications

AI and machine learning

SEO and paid search marketing

Content marketing

Customer experience

Technical debt Cross-
functional
collaboration Budget
constraints
for headcount Skills gaps
on the team Change
management Employee
engagement Technical debt Cross-
functional
collaboration Budget
constraints
for headcount Skills gaps
on the team Change
management Employee
engagement

Demand for specialized digital skills

In today’s multiplatform world, marketing and creative teams need innovators who thrive at the intersection of creativity and technology. Businesses are prioritizing candidates who can decode consumer behaviour and transform those insights into data-driven strategies that deliver results, whether it’s campaign creation, UX optimization or driving engagement through emerging technologies.

Marketing and creative leaders have reported skills gaps within their department, and more than a third said the impact of those gaps has increased in the past year.

Marketing
automation UX research
and product
design UX and
visual design Marketing
analytics Marketing
automation UX research
and product
design UX and
visual design Marketing
analytics

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Almost all marketing and creative leaders need to add new staff or at least maintain current headcounts to deliver on top business priorities. Yet 90% of those hiring said it’s challenging to find skilled talent in the current market.

of marketing and creative employers are hiring for new permanent positions. of marketing and creative employers are hiring for new permanent positions.

are hiring only for vacated permanent positions. are hiring only for vacated permanent positions.

Hiring plans for 2025 — contract professionals

73% of marketing and creative leaders said they’re increasing their use of contract talent in the first half of the year. They also shared the difficulties they’re having finding these professionals.

Meeting salary expectations

Finding candidates who align with corporate culture

Difficulty assessing skills and experience

Lack of skilled candidates

Marketing and creative professionals in highest demand

The following positions are in the top 15% of marketing and creative roles in demand, according to an analysis of thousands of job postings and Robert Half placements.

Art director

Content manager

Demand generation manager

Digital marketing manager

Product manager

Public relations/communications specialist

Social media manager

UX designer

Learn more about the top roles in demand

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*Statistics Canada, seasonally adjusted, April 2025.

The surveys cited were developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm. Results may not total 100% due to rounding or allowing for multiple responses. Respondents included executives, hiring managers and workers from small (10-99 employees), midsize (100-999 employees) and large (1,000-plus employees) businesses in private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across Canada.

Over 200,000 new positions from more than 5,400 unique job boards and company websites provided by TextKernel are represented in our analysis of in-demand roles, including 6,000-plus placements from Robert Half. This dataset includes roles across the finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, and human resources professions. 