The federal jobs outlook splits marketing in two: the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 6% growth for advertising, promotions, and marketing managers from 2025 to 2035, ahead of the 3% average for all jobs, yet it expects the 33,200 advertising and promotions managers to shrink 4% in the same span.
For anyone tracking marketing career trends, that split matters more than the headline. The same report marks strategy and analysis roles as winners. It marks ad production oversight as a loser. The stated cause is technology that writes and tests ads on its own. For related coverage, see Best Marketing Conferences — Marketing Conferences Calendar: Which Are Worth the Badge.
Which Marketing Roles Grow the Fastest?
Market research analysts lead. BLS projects 7% growth from 2025 to 2035, a rate it calls much faster than average. The base is huge: 952,700 jobs. About 82,000 openings a year are expected, driven by demand to read consumer data and measure which campaigns work.
The role, in the agency's own job description, means studying consumer preferences, business conditions, and other factors to assess the potential sales of a product or service. Pay sits at a median of $78,760 as of May 2025. That is below manager pay yet well above the $50,980 median for all jobs. This connects to our earlier piece, Digital Ad Revenue Hit $294.6 Billion in 2025 — and Social Ate the Growth.
Which Marketing Roles Are Shrinking?
Advertising and promotions managers. The occupation has about 33,200 jobs and is projected to lose 4% by 2035, around 1,200 posts. BLS credits improving technology, including AI, which lets managers and their staff generate, test, and change digital ads faster. It also cites ad blockers, which soften demand for the ads themselves.
The duties tell the story. Advertising managers run campaigns that spark interest in one product. Promotions managers direct programs that mix ads with purchase incentives. Both are oversight roles that tools now assist, which is the agency's point.
The same report expects marketing managers to add 29,100 jobs and grow 7%. At 421,600 jobs, that tier is the center of gravity of the field. Demand ties to pricing strategy and new ways to reach buyers.
What Does the Pay Gap Between Marketing Tiers Look Like?
It is wide. Marketing managers earned a median of $166,790 in May 2025. Advertising and promotions managers earned $133,660. Market research analysts earned $78,760. The top 10% of marketing managers passed $293,610.
The wage data skips self-employed workers. That detail matters here, since 35% of advertising and promotions managers work for themselves. The survey counts payroll jobs only, so a chunk of the field sits outside these figures.
Where Do the Job Openings Come From?
Mostly from churn. Of about 36,300 openings a year in the manager group, many come from people who retire or switch fields. The same pattern drives the 82,000 yearly openings for analysts.
The distinction matters for job seekers. Growth in a field is not a promise for one role. A shrinking field still refills posts as people leave. Net change and open seats are two different counts. In fields this large, replacement need, not net growth, drives most hiring.
How Firm Are Ten-Year Job Forecasts?
Firm enough to steer by, too rough to bet on. BLS rounds growth to whole numbers, and its notes admit subtotals may not add up due to rounding. Hiring also moves faster than a decade view. The figures work as a trend line, not a promise.
What holds up is the direction. Both strong tiers share one trait: they decide strategy or measure results. The weak tier supervises output that software increasingly makes.
Conclusion: The Marketing Field Is Splitting, Not Shrinking
The documented pattern favors roles that own strategy and measurement. Marketing manager jobs grow 7%. Analyst jobs grow 7%. The ad production tier shrinks as tools absorb its work. Skills that decide where money goes hold value better than skills that assemble what the money buys. The decade view makes the gap hard to miss.
