2026 Canada Marketing and Creative Hiring and Employment Trends

Job seekers: Explore opportunities and grow your career.

2.0%* December 2025 unemployment rate

Marketing and creative teams are entering 2026 with ambitious goals and evolving challenges. Leaders are focused on delivering impactful campaigns, embracing automation and AI and strengthening brand strategy, but resource gaps and new skill requirements create obstacles. To succeed, teams will need to be just as adaptable as they are creative and digitally fluent.

Organizations that act now to secure specialized marketing and creative talent and upskill existing staff will be better positioned to innovate, achieve their goals and maintain momentum. Beyond technical skills like marketing analytics and AI literacy, soft skills such as critical thinking and emotional intelligence remain essential for achieving specific goals.

Hiring managers: Get customized insights and workforce strategies from a Robert Half talent solutions professional.

Strategic priorities for 2026

Marketing and creative leaders shared their strategic priorities for 2026. Expect demand—and competition—to increase for professionals with the specialized skills needed to advance these critical initiatives.

AI and ML integration

Marketing analytics and performance

Social media and influencer marketing strategy

Brand and visual identity strategy

Customer experience and personalization

Marketing and creative teams face skills shortfalls that can stall critical initiatives. Only 2% of leaders reported having the necessary headcount and skill sets to accomplish priority projects this year, and 59% said they need to upskill current team members.

Flexible staffing solutions can also help teams gain the necessary expertise to keep operations running smoothly.

SEO and
paid search
marketing AI and ML
applications Marketing
automation Email campaign
strategy and
execution Brand or
product
marketing SEO and
paid search
marketing AI and ML
applications Marketing
automation Email campaign
strategy and
execution Brand or
product
marketing

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Critical
thinking and
problem solving Adaptability
and continuous
learning Creativity and
innovation Communication Emotional
intelligence Critical
thinking and
problem solving Adaptability
and continuous
learning Creativity and
innovation Communication Emotional
intelligence

Skills in highest demand

Recruiting professionals with specialized abilities enables leaders to advance strategic initiatives. An analysis of thousands of job postings over the past year shows which technical proficiencies employers value most in marketing and creative—making a competitive hiring strategy essential.

A/B testing

Adobe

AI-powered marketing

Customer experience

Data visualization

GA4

Marketing workflows and automation

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Hiring plans for 2026

56%

of marketing and creative leaders said finding skilled talent is more difficult today than a year ago.

73%

expect to increase headcount in the first half of 2026.

69%

plan to increase contract hiring.

Roles shaping hiring strategies

The following positions have experienced above-average sequential growth and consistent demand throughout the past 12 months, according to an analysis of thousands of job postings and Robert Half placements:

Digital marketing manager

Public relations manager

Social media manager

UX designer

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More to explore

Labour market overview Stay on top of Robert Half and Statistics Canada job posting data to learn about today’s hiring market.

Staffing for small businesses Stay competitive in today’s hiring landscape with trends and strategies specifically tailored for small businesses.

2026 Canada Salary Guide Explore the latest data for roles across 6 professional fields and what you should pay or earn in local and national markets.

In-demand marketing and creative roles Dive deeper into the marketing and creative roles most in demand. Also learn what proficiencies and skills are growing in demand.

*Statistics Canada, seasonally adjusted, January 2026.

The surveys cited were developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm. Results may not total 100% due to rounding or allowing for multiple responses. Respondents included executives, hiring managers and workers from small (10-99 employees), midsize (100-999 employees) and large (1,000+ employees) businesses in private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across Canada.

Over 650,000 new positions from more than 4,900 independent job boards and company websites are represented in this report, including thousands of placements from Robert Half. Positions are categorized into more than 365 job titles within Robert Half’s Salary Guide using a proprietary mapping methodology that employs state-of-the-art large language models. This dataset includes roles across the finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, and human resources professions.