This month, we sat down with Melissa Furze, LinkedIn's VP of Customer Science and the Head of the B2B Institute, to unpack the findings from our 2024 Marketing Jobs Outlook. Our conversation dives into marketing jobs growth and explores the vital skills marketers will need to excel in the dawning "Relationship Economy."
Introduction
Tequia Burt: Hi, I'm Tequia Burt, Editor-in-Chief of the LinkedIn Marketing Collective and the LinkedIn for Marketing blog. I am so thrilled to introduce you to the very first episode of Collective Conversations. Each month, I'll be chatting with a LinkedIn executive or top industry thought leader to explore the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping B2B marketing. Our discussions will always center on data-driven insights, and this month...we're diving into the state of the job market for marketers.
When it comes to the future of work, we are in a truly transformational time. With more technological tools than ever at our fingertips, AI being the prime example, of course, we can do things in marketing we couldn't even dream of doing just 10 years ago. But change is never easy. With new opportunities come new responsibilities. We are now being required to learn all of these new tools and to learn them quickly. Not only do we have to be technological wizards at work, but we also must be strong critical thinkers with the emotional intelligence to foster teamwork and encourage collaboration. These are not easy tasks, folks.
Marketing Job Growth
Tequia Burt: So, we explored all of this and more in our new 2024 Marketing Jobs Outlook, which includes an analysis of LinkedIn internal data, Ipsos data, and a survey via Censuswide.
And I am pleased to be here with LinkedIn's Global Vice President of Customer Science and the Global Head of the B2B Institute, Melissa Furze, to share some of our findings with you. Mel, welcome. Thank you for being the first ever guest on the collective conversation!
Mel Furze: My goodness, it's my pleasure to be here. It's just lovely to be here.
Tequia Burt: So, I'm just going to jump right in. 2023 was a tough year for marketers. Last year we faced turbulence with lots of layoffs, which resulted in a sluggish job market as companies prioritized cost cutting over hiring. Not only that, but many B2B marketers, 43% according to our jobs report, faced reorgs at their companies last year. However, things have been looking up according to the latest jobs outlook.
Though marketing job growth sort of started out slow at the beginning of this year, it gradually picked up over the year with a 76 % increase in overall marketing job growth and a 21% boost in B2B marketing jobs posted on LinkedIn. However, not all industries saw the same growth. Can you talk about that?
Mel Furze: Yeah, that's right. You mentioned it, we saw a 21% increase in B2B marketing jobs that have been posted on LinkedIn in the past year alone. But, actually, that story looks quite different when you look at it through an industry lens. So, when we look at the volume of jobs posted for B2B marketing roles across the Agency, the Professional Services and across the Healthcare industry, they have all declined.
What we're seeing is actual strength in the technology and the financial services industry, where we've seen that job postings have actually increased by 10 and 15%t. And really, this is particularly notable because it's such a dramatic departure from what we saw when we ran this report last season. As you can see here, previously, we'd seen a 52% decline in job postings for roles in the Technology industry, and we previously saw a 56% decline in the Financial Services industry.
So really, as you can see, it's quite the turnaround story.
The Rise of the Relationship Economy
Tequia Burt: So let's shift focus a little bit. We've been talking about the Relationship Economy quite a bit at LinkedIn recently. In a world where automation is becoming more important, businesses are prioritizing relationship building and human connection much more. Can you talk about what we're seeing in relation to this new economy?
Mel Furze: At LinkedIn, we're seeing signs of this new economy emerging, right, that you alluded to. And it's what we're calling the Relationship Economy. And what we're seeing is that this is emerging through shifts that we see happening in the labor market. So what our data is showing us is that there are actually three key trends that are driving this. So the first thing I'd love to highlight is what we're seeing in our data around jobs and around hiring.
Right now, what we are seeing in the labor market is this kind of continued rebalancing and stabilization happening across the labor market. And what we're seeing is that these labor market shifts are also coming at a time of huge technological change. But what I find most interesting is actually that the skills that are emerging as the most important skills are actually soft skills.
And that really brings me to the second trend, which is all around skills. What we've seen is that the skills needed for jobs today are changing far more rapidly than ever before.
In fact, what we've seen is that in the past eight years alone, the skills needed for jobs have already changed by 25%. And when we look at 2030, what we're predicting is that they're going to change by 65%. So this rapid change is giving way to what we call the skills-first labor market. And the third trend that I'd love to share will come as no surprise is the rise of generative AI. For me personally, and for many others, I know that this year has really felt like the year that AI in the workplace has become a very real thing. In fact, over the last six months, the use of generative AI has nearly doubled.
Mel Furze: And the third trend, which will come as no surprise, is the rise of generative AI. This year has really felt like the year that AI at work has become a genuinely real thing. In fact, over the last six months, the use of generative AI has nearly doubled, with 75% of global knowledge workers now using AI. And marketeers are leading the charge in this area of transformation. According to our latest B2B benchmark, report, more than two thirds of B2B marketing leaders are already using GAI in their marketing activities.
Tequia Burt: That's really interesting, Mel. It seems sort of as we evolve into this Relationship Economy that professionals of all different stripes are going to be affected. What do you think this is going to mean for B2B marketers?
Mel Furze: Well, when you think about transformations in the labor market, these are best really understood in the context of large scale macroeconomic shifts. So we believe that the biggest economic shift right now is that we're transforming from what we have known as the knowledge economy to what I just shared around the Relationship Economy. So if you think about the Knowledge Economy, this is one where intellectual capital drove new economic benefits and maximized existing ones. But when you look at the Relationship Economy, it's one that marks a time where people skills and social abilities will actually become more critical to success than ever before.
And so you can imagine that AI could actually usher in a world of work that is anchored more rather than less around human ability. And we've seen this in our data. We've seen that the skills and demand for leaders are changing. Skills like emotional intelligence and social abilities are becoming more important to landing the top job. So leadership is becoming less about your operational and technical skills and more about your ability to inspire and energize teams.
So what does this mean for B2B marketers? Well, I think that this shift should be incredibly empowering for marketeers because that is exactly what marketeers are excellent at doing. It's all about understanding people and it's about building, creating and influencing through their work.
LinkedIn’s Marketing Skill of the Year
Tequia Burt: You know, that thought dovetails really nicely into talking about our skill of the year, which we chose for the very first time for our jobs report. So there's a lot of firsts, the first Collective Conversation, the first time we've chosen a skill of the year. To figure out what the skill would be, we examined data from the 2024 B2B Marketing Benchmark, which was conducted by Ipsos, as well as some LinkedIn platform data.
Earlier this year when we released the benchmark, we identified which skills marketers prioritize. To pinpoint our skill of the year, we looked at how much the skills prioritized by B2B marketers and the benchmark grew on LinkedIn over the past few years. So drum roll, please.
Tequia Burt: Our skill of the year is... collaborative problem solving.
Why do you think this is a must have skill for marketers in today's Relationship Economy, Mel?
Mel Furze: I love this question. When we look at our data, we're actually seeing that there are a lot of human skills that are in top demand right now, but certainly skills like collaboration and problem solving are among the most in demand skills specifically for marketeers. so bringing these together into collaborative problem solving, I think is just a great call out for the skill of the year. And I know a lot of people also ask me about hard skills. And what we've seen is that the ones that are most in demand for B2B marketing jobs are actually around creative execution.
They're around AI, no surprise, and they're around marketing technology. So when you look at these three, the demand for creative execution skills has actually grown by 443% in the last two years alone, which is wild. When it comes to AI, it's 392%, and the demand for marketing technology skills have grown 351%. So these are some fairly significant shifts. And these skills, while they've grown significantly in their importance,
To me, what is most exciting is that it's actually not all about technology. So coming back to our skill of the year, it's really about marrying AI proficiency with human skills like collaboration and problem solving.
Tequia Burt: You know, I think that one of people's greatest concerns when it comes to AI is, especially as a content marketer, right? It's thinking that whatever you'll create will be too robotic and lack humanity. How can marketers effectively balance the use of AI with maintaining authentic human connections?
Mel Furze: I really believe that the future of marketing lies in actually the marriage of human skills with AI proficiency and not one without the other. For me, the potential of AI marketing is immense. I think we've seen that play out in the last year alone. And certainly, marketeers have been early adopters of AI in the workplace. Our data actually suggest a 142% increase in members globally adding AI skills to their profiles. So we've seen these significant trends. And when it comes to marketers, we know that they're also leading the way. If you want to take another example, we see that when it comes to CMOs across the globe, AI is the fastest growing digital skill that they're putting on their profiles. So for me, the future is all about connecting with audiences, building, influencing and inspiring them. That's the essence of marketing. We know that buyers need credibility, connection and confidence to make buying decisions.
In practice, I think this means designing strategies where AI plays a supportive role. AI shouldn't be the strategy or the entire solution, rather it's an enabler. So in our team, and I believe in many others, we see the opportunity to embrace AI to help us drive productivity gains and free up our team to innovate. We use AI to handle repetitive tasks, leveraging it for what it excels at today, like synthesis, desk research, initial creative drafts, copy development, and many, many more
And so I see this as incredible opportunities to free up our experts to focus on what they do best. Analyzing, interpreting, building relationships, consulting, inspiring teams, making strategic recommendations, and of course many, many other areas as well.
Tackling Marketer Anxiety
Tequia Burt: So I have just one last question for you. One of the other really important things that our report surfaced is the anxiety that marketers are experiencing right now. Yes, the advent of all this technology is exciting and it presents all sorts of fantastic opportunities, but our report found that 69 % of marketing professionals are feeling overwhelmed by all of these rapid changes. What strategies can brands use to support their teams and what advice would you give leaders whose team are feeling overwhelmed by all these changes and feeling left behind in their careers?
Mel Furze: Yeah, it's certainly a challenging environment and our research shows that marketers are feeling not just increased pressure, but actually that pressure is coming from multiple angles. And on top of that, they have a sense that the pressure is only rising.
Much of what they've shared with us is that this is due to the feeling of being left behind given that their roles are changing so rapidly. And there's this belief that the tactics and the strategies that used to work in the past won't work anymore. Our research showed that 57% professionals agree that simply relying on past experience just won't cut it in today's environment.
In terms of what marketing leaders can do, I think this is really about two things. I think first, it's about being proactive and preparing yourself as a leader. And secondly, it's about being proactive and preparing your teams.
There are three things that are top of mind for me right now that I would encourage others to consider. The first is don't go it alone. We're all operating in a space right now where there's really no existing playbook. And so it's time to build a community of other people trying to navigate the changes, the challenges, as well as the opportunities ahead.
The second thing I'd encourage is just to embrace a learn it all mindset. Leveraging any new technology is going to be a journey of discovery, there's going to be wins, there's going to be failures, there's going to be some surprises along the way.
And that brings me really to my third point around test and learn. This is something that we've always embraced as marketers. And so the same applies to adopting new technologies and testing new use cases for those technologies. A test and learn approach really enables faster learning and of course reduces iteration cycles.
Don't go it alone, embrace a learn it all mindset and embrace an experimentation test and learn approach.
Tequia Burt: That is really great advice, Mel. And it was such a great pleasure to have you on. Thanks for spending some time with us today to help us understand what the job market looks like today for marketers across the globe. And to our listeners and viewers, thank you so much for tuning in. We'll see you next month. And don't forget, subscribe to the newsletter to make sure you're part of the Collective Conversation. See you next time!
For more insights, check out our 2024 Fall Marketing Jobs Outlook.
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