The job outlook for unemployed direct marketers has deteriorated sharply: The median length of unemployment among those actively seeking work is now 12.0 months, compared with 6.5 months reported a year earlier, according to a new survey from Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC.
Among surveyed unemployed marketing jobseekers* actively looking for full-time work, fully two-thirds (67%) say they have been searching for a marketing job for over seven months, whereas just 21% have been looking for one to three months.
Moreover, nearly one-third of unemployed marketers say they have been looking for a full-time marketing role for over 18 months.
Broken down by salary levels, lower-paid marketing jobseekers were found to be experiencing only slightly more success in finding jobs than those in the higher-salary brackets, according to Bernhart.
By age, however, the differences in success rates were more dramatic. For example, 100% of jobseekers age 30-39 said they had been searching for a new job for less than one year, whereas 50% of those age 50-59 said they had been looking for over one year. Among jobseekers age 60+, the average job search length was over 18 months on average.
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The findings are consistent with the challenges facing the overall US labor market: "In July, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nationwide median length of unemployment was 22.2 weeks, or approximately 5 months," said Jerry Bernhart, principal, Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC.
"While that is significantly less than the median for direct marketers, many direct marketing-related job categories require more specialized knowledge, more training, and higher levels of educational attainment than other jobs that fall into the unskilled labor category."
*Excludes those who are looking only for part-time work, currently employed, or unemployed but only passively looking.
About the data: Findings are from an online survey of 448 marketing professionals, from August 16 to 22, 2010, conducted by Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC.
