How’s the Market: Recruitment trends for 2025

What recruitment trends can we expect to see in the world of Sales , Marketing and Category in 2025? 

As [axr] Sales & Marketing approaches our 5-year anniversary, it’s time to look at what we think will happen in 2025 as well as the long-term career trends and recruitment trends we’re tracking. As usual we’ll give a quick macro-overview then dive into sales, marketing and category.

The Macro in 100 words!

Whilst economic growth in Australia slowed over 2024, we’ve now experienced 12 consecutive quarters of growth and will continue to see steady progress through 2025. That’s good to know but the big question is when will interest rates start to drop? Inflation is still stubbornly high and unemployment is impressively low….so interest rates will not drop soon or far in 2025, and any drop will be marginal and gradual. The big question is, what does that mean for the recruitment market in 2025? Is it the trigger every business is waiting for? In short, no. Demand for talent is still outstripping supply, but it’s not evenly spread.

Sales will peak, but it now has such size and scope that 2025 will still be busy 

The major shift in 2024 was the quick and continuous re-emergence of the National Business Manager (NBM) role as the large numbers of National Account Managers (NAM) recruited and developed post-covid reached leadership levels. But the NBM is not the role of old, it now requires multi-functional and multi-channel experience; a sales role for future leaders, not just a parking-lot for old-hands. The underlying long-term recruitment trends for the function have been the impressive development in sophistication and scope – we think it’s now close to full optimisation, and that demand for talent will peak in 2025, but even business as usual recruitment will mean our Sydney Sales recruiters we will be kept very busy!

Marketing will be back…we just don’t know when the dam will burst

The senior marketing market has been threatening to burst into life over the past 2 years with some exciting new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) roles in the market, but it’s just not happened yet. So many marketers, from Marketing Manager roles upwards, are ready for a move and waiting for an opportunity. The dam is close to overflowing, we just need 3 or 4 senior marketing roles to happen at the same time and it’ll burst. If it’s any comfort, the senior Sales market was in the same place 2 years ago…and its dam got blown away within a month. The more junior Brand roles are in steady demand as are Content, Social and Digital Marketing roles … but when this dam does burst, it’ll be a lot of fun through the whole function and for our Sydney sales and marketing recruiters!

Category has more scope and impact, and recruitment will shift to an external focus

The long term trend has seen Category grow in responsibility, with Commercial Planning and Revenue Management moving out of finance into the function alongside a Shopper Marketing team that has been given a much bigger bite. It’s also common to now see specialist teams in Category Strategy and Category Development all resulting in significantly more headcount. But we’ve been perplexed by the fickle nature of recruitment in recent quarters. Analysis shows that much of the growth has come from internal hires; organisations giving talent experiential breadth – just what we preach! Whilst we love that trend, we know the size of the function means external talent moves will happen much more regularly going forward.

In summary, forecasting is a mugs game – just ask a dozen economists and listen to a dozen different views. We’re also embedded in Loyalty and Retail Media with some strategic clients and see both demanding more investment from CPG in 2025. Lots to consider, but overall we’re quietly bullish, and why not?

For more recruitment trends, keep an eye out in next month for our 2025 [axr] Salary Guide – our more comprehensive view of Sydney sales and marketing roles, along with Sydney finance and accounting roles, key trends in each function, salary expectations, plus career insights, market wraps and more! You won’t want to miss it!