Reports are flying around the internet almost daily from Ad Age, Search Marketing Land, and Forrester all presenting less than ideal predictions. According to Forrester, they are projecting a 28% drop in US marketing spend which is their most optimistic scenario. Yikes!
This drop in spend would include media, services, technology, and internal headcount ending by 2021. That’s a drastic reduction in marketing efforts which is quite a scary idea for any marketing professional.
The reports continuing citing offline media, agency services, ans staff payroll will suffer the most. So if your in the current extremely competitive job market, I would steer away from agency work as that vertical is shrinking for the next 2 years meaning it will be even hard to A) get a job/clients and B) make good money.
I was affected by COVID in March, right when the shit hit the fan, with a lay off. Even being the top performing executive four years in a row couldn’t save me.
When times are tough why lay off your best people? Well, they simply cost the most to keep onboard.
Fortunately I had build up enough career capital during my time at the agency one of my clients hired me as their Marketing Director 3 days after they found out I was laid off. That felt so good! The lesson to learn is be really good at your job and if you are the marketplace will reward you. Simply supply and demand dynamics – when your in the top 5% in your field you will find a job whether there’s a crisis or not.