The jobs market for media professionals is flat in Australia.
Hiring by radio and television broadcasters, outdoor media companies and publishers fell in the June 2025 quarter compared to the same three months in 2024, according to recruitment firm Mercury Talent.
Search and social media platforms and events companies increased their hiring for the media industry to deliver a flat result overall.
Media industry employment in Melbourne was up 1% while Sydney was down 2% for the quarter year-on-year.
“The positive media industry sentiment we have heard of late has not translated into increased employment activity,” said Justin Randles, director of Mercury Talent.
“Despite improved advertising spend data, media recruitment remains stubbornly subdued.”
Product and operations and marketing and communications roles experienced strong growth.
But content and sales jobs dragged the hiring market down.
In a sign the juniorisation trend might be slowing, senior-level recruitment was up 17% while the demand for junior positions fell 6%.
Among the major media industry employers, Google (up 63%), Are Media (up 42%) and News Corp (up 38%) lead the recruitment charge while the ABC (down 54%), REA Group (down 22%) and the Seven Network (down 14%) cut hiring in the June quarter compared to the previous year.
Publishers, despite falling 24%, are still the largest employer group with 385 advertised roles in June 2025, followed by TV broadcasters and streamers and events companies.
The most active publishing hirers during the quarter were News Corp, Are Media, Nine and REA Group.
In the TV sector, Nine, SBS, Seven and Paramount lead the charge.
Among events companies, Tennis Australia, Live Nation, the NBL and Expertise Events all increased their recruitment activity during the quarter.
Recruiting for sales staff fell 11% but still was the most in-demand job function, accounting for 38% of advertised roles overall.
TikTok, Nine, News Corp and Google remained the biggest hirers of sales people. Content/editorial roles continued to slide, dropping 20%.
Product/operations and marketing/communications jobs experienced a boost in demand, increasing 27% and 15% year-on-year respectively.
The jobs market for the June quarter at a glance:
- Total number of jobs: 995 (-1%)
- Location: Melbourne: 271 (+1%), Sydney: 760 (-2%)
- Media type: TV/Streaming: 190 (-8%), Radio/Podcast: 86 (-49%), OOH/Retail Media: 70 (-28%), Publishing: 385 (-24%), Events: 128 (+5%), DSP / Programmatic: 43 (+2%), Search/Social: 111 (+31%)
- Job Function: CEO-GM: 7 (+40%), Content: 194 (-20%), Sales: 360 (-11%), Product/ops: 326 (+27%), MarComms: 479 (+15%)
- Seniority: Senior Management: 9 (+80%), Director-level: 83 (+17%), Manager-level: 428 (+1%), Executive-level: 475 (-6%)
- Top employers: News Corp: 73 (+38%), Nine: 67 (-%), Are Media: 44 (+42%), Google: 39 (+63%), TikTok: 35 (-5%), REA Group: 25 (-22%), Nova: 23 (+5%), SBS: 23 (-12%), ABC: 22 (-54%) Seven Network: 18 (-14%)
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