The jobs market in the media industry, with senior roles shrinking and junior roles rising, has picked up but is still trailing last year’s levels, according to recruiters Mercury Talent.
Media industry hiring in the September quarter lifted 8.4% compared to the previous quarter but the jobs market is still down 9.5% compared to the same three months in 2024.
Both Melbourne and Sydney experienced quarterly gains in the 8% to 9% range.
However, Melbourne was down 4% compared to 2024 and Sydney was behind 12%.
News Corp, Nine and TikTok were the most active recruiters for the quarter.
Drive and Medium Rare both went on a hiring spree.
“It’s still tough conditions for job seekers with media industry hiring still below 2024 levels, but the 8% quarterly increase in advertised positions in the September quarter could be a sign that we might have turned the corner,” said Justin Randles, director at Mercury Talent.
“Hiring activity drops off in November and December but hopefully we’ll see year-on-year increases in 2026 which would signal the worst is behind us.”
Out-of-home, radio and publishers led the quarterly rebound while the tech platforms reeled in hiring in the September quarter.
Only the events sector reported year on year gain with hiring up 7%.
Demand for product/operations people remained strong and while all job functions are down year on year, content, sales and marketing roles experienced increased quarterly demand.
More than half of advertised roles are for junior roles, a trend which has progressed across all job functions over the past five quarters.
Among the most active hirers, Medium Rare had a big quarter, as did Drive, Stan, Foxtel and the ABC which had the biggest percentage quarterly increases.
Foxtel and the ABC were down on 2024 recruitment levels.
Are Media, Paramount and Momentum Media had low-activity recruitment quarters although Paramount and Are Media hiring in the September quarter was up compared to a year earlier.
The most in-demand job in July to September is the junior publishing industry journalist/producer with 73 jobs in Sydney and 17 in Melbourne.
Junior and mid-level media sales people were also in high demand, especially from publishers and TV broadcasters/streamers.
Senior roles remain scarce across the board.
The Media Industry Hiring Report is based on tracking advertised jobs that meet the following criteria: Employers: Publishers, broadcasters, OOH, retail media, search/social, programmatic; Roles: Content, sales, product/operations, marketing, senior management; and Location: Sydney and Melbourne. Advertised jobs for finance, admin, HR, engineering and desktop/network technology roles are not included in this analysis.
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