Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Early this year, conversations surrounding an upcoming recession started making headlines. Then, we saw mass layoffs and hiring freezes happening, particularly in the tech world.

According to our 2023 Marketing Strategy Report, 48% of global marketers say the potential for an economic downturn or recession has affected their company’s hiring plans in 2022.
The report also suggests that this impact will continue into 2023. In this article, we’ll cover:

How the Recession Has Impacted Hiring So Far
How the Recession Will Impact Hiring in 2023
Which Roles Remain Popular & Which Ones Have Lower Demand
Which Companies and Industries Are Most Impacted

How The Recession Has Impacted Hiring So Far
Based on our report, we know that nearly half of marketers globally say the current economy has impacted their hiring plans for the year. The question is how.
The report suggests that marketers already struggle with hiring top talent, with 47% of respondents saying it’s one of their biggest challenges. More specifically, respondents say the biggest roadblocks are finding candidates with the right skill set and meeting salary expectations.

The recession has only exacerbated an existing issue. Here are some standout figures:

35% of respondents say they had to slow down or pause hiring efforts.
27% of respondents say their company had to fire or lay off employees.
26% of respondents say their company had to rescind offers made to prospective employees.

When asked in the Fall of 2022, “How long do you expect hiring efforts to be slowed or paused at your company?” 43% estimated four to six months while 27% said over seven months.
This indicates that many companies will be experiencing hiring freezes well into the new year.
It’s worth noting though that the recession hasn’t impacted all companies in the same way. The report shows that some companies actually increased hiring, according to 34% of marketers surveyed.
One interesting finding is that companies that describe their marketing strategy as effective are nearly 20% more likely to increase their hiring efforts in 2023.

How The Recession Will Impact Hiring in 2023
According to our report, 10% of marketers still anticipate struggling with hiring top talent in 2023. And 42% of respondents say the recession will affect their hiring plans next year.

How exactly? 35% say they will have to slow or pause hiring efforts. In addition, 24% of respondents say their companies plan to fire or lay off employees.
However, mirroring the 2022 outlook, many companies – 48% –plan on increasing hiring efforts, suggesting that not all industries are being impacted negatively by the economic downturn.

Which marketing roles will be impacted by a potential recession in 2023?
Every company weighs roles differently. Depending on their business goals, companies will place more importance on some roles versus others.
We were interested in finding out if there was a lot of overlap across industries with the roles they chose to invest in most or least in 2023.

Here’s what we found out: Two roles for which companies plan to decrease their recruitment efforts the most are: General marketing managers and acquisition marketing managers.
Given the economic climate, companies may be focused more on retention rather than acquisition, explaining the shift away from this role. As for the general marketing manager role, one theory is that companies rather invest in specialized roles that can offer quicker results.

Conversely, when asked about which roles they plan to increase their increase efforts, the top three were:

SEO strategist
Marketing data analyst
Creative director

Which companies and industries will be most impacted?
We’ve mentioned throughout this article that no two companies are impacted the same way during an economic downturn.
Our report shows that companies in the Media and Entertainment industry are most likely to decrease hiring efforts in 2023, 13% more than other industries.
83% of respondents in that category say that the potential for an economic downturn or recession will lead to a decrease in hiring efforts in 2023. Among those surveyed, those working in government and ecommerce show the lowest potential for a decrease in hiring efforts.

Meanwhile, we’re seeing the highest numbers for increases in hiring efforts in these five industries:

Defense and aeronautics
Government
eCommerce
Chemicals and metals
Advertising or marketing

There also seems to be a correlation between a company’s size and its hiring plans. According to our report, companies with large marketing teams (201 to 500 marketers) are 20% more likely to increase their hiring efforts in 2023.
There’s still so much unknown surrounding the current economy. However, our report suggests that many companies are taking a conservative approach to hiring in 2023 in preparation for difficult financial times.

Like many small business owners, I launched my boutique as a one-woman show. The Flourish Market was just a fashion truck at the time, so it was manageable for me—and eventually some hourly staff—to take it to events, ship online orders, and market the burgeoning business.When we opened our first brick-and-mortar store 13 months later, everything changed. Suddenly, someone needed to be present at the storefront six days a week, on top of keeping things running behind the scenes. I was being pulled in a thousand directions and barely had time to do the basic tasks that would keep my business running, let alone the strategic work to help it grow. I had reached a sticking point where the only two ways to move my business forward would be to hire someone to free up my time, or to magically add more hours to my day. Since I am not a wizard, it would have to be hiring. And I didn’t want to just keep relying on hourly staff, either—I wanted an experienced store manager who could take the mental burden of day-to-day operations off my plate. When I looked at our revenue at the time (just over $300,000), I could only afford about three months of payroll for a full-time store manager given other costs—but I decided to take the leap and hire a salaried employee anyway. Let me tell you, it was terrifying. I was paying her more than I was even paying myself. I was worried we would run out of money before I knew it, and that I would end up a failed business owner.Instead, we more than tripled our revenue within that year—more than enough to pay her salary, to grow mine to where it really needed to be, and to put away some savings for the business. Since then, I’ve found the biggest gains in my business happen when I invest in bringing on help, even when it feels like a bit of a stretch.Here’s why that hire paid off so much, how I ensured I was making the most of my newfound time, and how I now recommend other business owners think about growing their teams.It Was an Investment in the Future of My BusinessI find that the majority of business owners pick option number two when they’re feeling stretched too thin—they try to magically add more hours to their day. That’s usually what’s talked about in entrepreneurship: Are you willing to put in the work? Are you willing to hustle hard enough?The question I like to ask at that point is: At what expense? Beyond the mental health implications of working yourself into the ground (more on that in a minute), I don’t think this approach will ever lead to true scalability because there’s only so much you can do on your own.The mental shift that really helped me was this: Instead of thinking about my new employee as a cost, I started thinking about her as an investment. I always tell my coaching clients now that, if you’re hiring the right person, they should make you money, not cost you money. I learned this from experience when hiring my first salaried employee. For starters, she quickly made up for her salary (and then some) by bringing in retail expertise that helped the store run more efficiently and increase our sales. On top of that, she opened up my time to spend on strategic tasks that would grow the business’ bottom line and impact.Now, anytime I’m hiring someone new, I ask myself what value they can add instead of what cost. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Emily Grey (@emilygreyunderway) It Motivated Me to Spend Time on Higher-Value WorkTaking the risk of bringing on a salaried employee before I felt ready really lit a fire under my butt to work on my business instead of in my business—to do the work that wouldn’t just sustain the business but that would grow it to the next level. I had put a lot of these tasks on the backburner, partially for lack of time and partially out of fear that they wouldn’t work out. But I told myself that, if I hired this person, I had to start investing my time more wisely. I started to think about every task I was doing in terms of the value it was bringing back into the business. There was the $10 per hour work (shipping orders, working the register, administrative tasks) that should be done by hourly staff (who, by the way, we pay more than $10 per hour—that’s just a useful number for this mental exercise). There was the $100 per hour work (styling customers, merchandising the store, tracking best selling items through inventory reports) that should be on my new employee’s plate. Where I needed to be investing the bulk of my time was in the $1,000 and $10,000 per hour work. This is the stuff that isn’t just focusing on bringing in one transaction but is paving the way for many transactions: Pitching press to get our name out there, improving our marketing strategy, making strategic connections in my city, spinning up new revenue streams (like the coworking space we launched to make use of extra space in our store). I still wanted to stay connected to my customers, so I committed to spending 10 hours a week working in the store. But, I challenged myself to spend the remaining 30 hours only on those high-value tasks. This approach was game-changing for taking my business to the next level: Less than a year later, we had hit the $1 million revenue mark.Thinking of how I spend my time in terms of value is now a cornerstone of how I run my business. Each quarter, I do a time audit by tracking every hour of my time for a two week period, and I work to offload any low-value tasks I’m holding onto. I now have my team do the same, which helps us build the job description of who we need to hire next to open up everyone’s time to have more impact on the business.It Was Necessary for My Mental HealthAs business owners, we carry so much. There’s obviously the never-ending list of what needs to get done (which, as I mentioned above, is important to get support on so we have time for loved ones and fun and other things that contribute to our wellbeing). But there’s also the heaviness of wondering: Will my business succeed? Will I be able to take care of my employees and my contractors? Will I end up in a puddle of shame because my business fails?Before I hired my full-time employee, I felt like I was running on a hamster wheel trying to keep up, and the weight of worrying about my success was making it harder and harder. I’ve always found that the best way to fight overwhelm and fear is by taking action, and by offloading the day-to-day tasks to someone and putting myself in motion on strategic tasks, I felt more empowered to create the success I envisioned.Bringing on team members is ultimately about investing in spaciousness. The space to take care of yourself so you can show up fully in your work, the space to dream up new ideas, and the space to actually implement them: That’s what unlocks the next level of growth. We just celebrated seven years in business, and I’m now surrounded by a team of 22, including five salaried employees. Taking the scary leap to invest in someone new never gets easier, but it’s been worth it every time. Not only has it consistently helped me take my business to new heights, but I get the joy and fulfillment of doing it alongside others. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Flourish Market (@theflourishmarket)