Survey: 34% of Ad Agencies Plan to Hire

A survey performed by the Creative Group, a recruiting agency, found that 34 percent of the advertising and marketing executives surveyed plan to hire in the coming 12 months.

Another 55 percent said they plans to maintain current staffing levels.

The skills in most demand? One in two said they plan to hire staff in four areas: Web design or production, creative or art direction, interactive, and account services.

Least in demand? Only 10 percent said they were looking to hire workers for media services and only 23 percent for public relations, according to the survey.

“Many firms are interested in expanding their digital presence,” Megan Slabinski, executive director, said in a news release. Rather than hire full-time employees, companies often bring in talent on a project basis, she said. That way businesses can avoid laying off workers if the economy loses momentum

According to the Creative Group, its survey was based on 250 interviews: 125 with ad executives randomly selected from the nation’s 2,000 largest advertising agencies and 125 with senior marketing executives randomly selected from the nation’s 2,000 largest companies.