2025 industry insights and Salary Survey

2024 has been quite a challenging year for the creative industries due to global economic circumstances.  Last year saw a number of agencies close shop and redundancies continue while several acquisitions and mergers meant that historical industry names disappeared completely.  

But it is not all doom and gloom.  A significant number of new agencies have launched in 2024, some have been funded by existing creative shops, showing that the creative industry is still in demand and while salaries have not seen a huge jump, focus has shifted toward providing employees with better quality benefits and greater flexibility. Almost 100% of those surveyed said that flexibility remains their key factor when deciding whether to leave a job or what to look for in a new role.

DE&I remains important to employers, in the UK at least, in PR those identifying as female account for 65% of employees while in advertising it’s slightly lower at 55%.  There has been a slight increase from the previous year for those identifying as BAME now at just over 15% of employees. Work still to be done, particularly at senior level.

From April 2025 the London Living Wage increased to £13.85 an hour and is the only wage that is based on living costs.  This means those looking to hire first jobbers at AAE/JAE level should be looking to pay at least £28,000.