There has been a significant shift toward the “juniorisation” of the Australian digital advertising and ad tech industry workforce.
According to the 2024 IAB Industry Talent Report, over three-quarters of open positions in the industry target people with one to five years of experience, with the most in-demand group being people with three to five years of experience.
This comes as the rate of job vacancies across the Australian digital advertising and ad tech industry slightly rose from 4.5% in to 4.6% in 2024. The report noted that redundancies across the sector, which reduced the population base, mean there are fewer available jobs compared to 2023.
However, IAB noted that there is cautious optimism, with more than six in ten companies looking to make modest increases to staffing levels and only 11% looking to slightly decrease their workforce.
There has also been a shift in perspective on the impact of AI. In 2023, a range of companies indicated they thought AI might directly reduce the number of people in their teams. However, this year, most companies plan to use AI to improve productivity without impacting current staffing levels.
The report noted that the average salary increase over the last twelve months was 3.8%, down from 4.2% in the previous year.
However overall, the cumulative increase in digital advertising specialist salaries over the last few years has increased the cost of talent significantly and Australia remains a premium job market with higher employee costs than many other markets.
Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, 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.
“As workforces become leaner in the executive ranks, there’s been a significant shift to the hiring of more junior members of staff. 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.
“With the increase of less tenured employees who are experiencing rapid promotion, companies in the industry are looking to support and upskill staff in leadership and management skills. With the shift in composition in the workforce only 5% of the digital advertising and ad tech employees are now aged over 50 years of age.”
The report also found that women in senior management roles reduced to 34% from 38% in 2023. But it also found growth in the representation of women in commercial roles increase from 49% to 53% over the last year. While women in product roles over the last few years rose from 36% in 2021 to 48% in 2024.
Although men dominate tech and engineering roles, there has been an increase of women stepping into the space from 13% in 2022 to 22% in 2024.
The data also revealed 48% of organisations require most staff members to be in the office three days a week, while 22% of organisations have increased their part-time staff employee numbers over the last two years.
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Top image: Gai Le Roy