From news of redundancies and agencies closing, to the LinkedIn posts from peers sharing ‘personal updates’ on job searches and career breaks, the signs are there that these are challenging times for the insights profession.

With continuing economic uncertainty comes the reality that fewer places are hiring – and fewer people are moving.  

While accurate data on the volume of job-seeking research professionals is hard to come by, in the US – where redundancies or layoffs have been rife in the past couple of years, particularly in tech and media – the Insights Career Network is seeing around 110 new individuals join its active job seeker list each month (across product, customer, user, market, and business researchers and insights).

In a time of such uncertainty and shifting expectations, it seems there is no such thing as an ‘average’ job seeker – and experience and skills honed over many years are no longer offering the security one might have expected in the past. Indeed, the ICN’s 2025 census report found that the group’s ‘highly experienced’ members are facing a job market where qualifications don’t always translate to opportunity, particularly at senior levels.

Patrick Alcantara, whose previous employer The Lending Standards Board is closing after high street banks pulled back from voluntary regulation, is now looking for senior insight roles, with a focus on regulated client sectors. His experience has been “a mixed bag”, with fewer client-side roles available. He adds: “There are still senior-level roles around, but there aren't as many as before.”

Alcantara says: “While part of it might be attributed to the summer holidays, I don't think that the job market has picked up at a level compared to previous years. ONS data suggests that overall number of vacancies have been dropping steadily for the last three years, so it isn't a new thing.” However, he is cautiously optimistic that increased public investment will eventually positively impact the private sector.

Senior-level insights roles now tend to require data and analytics skills, he adds, with ‘pure’ market research roles or roles managing market research teams not appearing as often. “I think it follows the trend of ‘insights’ activity being interpreted increasingly at client-side as data- or analytics-dominated, which I am taking as a sign to upskill and offer value beyond my market research specialism,” Alcantara says.

Doing your research

When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold, as the saying goes. Trump’s tariffs have had a steady but significant effect across many of the research industry’s client sectors and are also shaping recruitment trends in the UK and elsewhere.

In this market, knowledge is power and networking is key. Dinisha Cherodian, who started a new role as head of research at See Research a few months ago, took an evidence-based approach in response to how tough the job market has been in recent years. “Having been in this industry for quite a long time, the last two or three years has been difficult – the number of people looking for jobs is increasing. There is also not so much movement when things are tough because people tend to stick. And I personally was looking for a role where I could really step up, and I was looking for quite a senior role.”

As part of her approach, Cherodian worked with mentors in the industry to help her understand the health of businesses – which ones are doing well, and which ones are not. “I think it’s definitely about understanding companies and understanding their pipeline,” she says. “Everyone I’ve spoken to [agrees] that in the last two or three years, with everything that has happened politically, particularly Trump’s tariffs, there has been a trickledown effect – the challenges of bringing in and converting business means it is very hard to predict and guarantee what your pipeline is going to look like, which then affects hiring and redundancies. It has just been quite a climate of difficulty.”

In terms of what she looked for, Cherodian says she was thinking about leaders that are “thinking dynamically and creatively about how they change their business and how they look ahead” and also points to those acting cautiously, adding: “There’s a lot more caution at hiring level – that has been a big change. You really have to think through everyone that you’re hiring and then at the very senior levels that becomes a real challenge.”

While the job market may be tough, people still want to find the right balance and not walk into an environment that’s going to drain them. Another theme that Cherodian has picked up from her conversations with her mentors and from mentoring others herself, is the increased awareness of avoiding burnout.

“People are not wanting to go into anything toxic. There are toxic environments, and even if there are places that are hiring a lot with high salaries, there is a level of caution because as much as we all need a job and it’s a worrying economy, you’re much more conscious of the burnout and stress that comes from being in an environment that is not very well professionally led and the anxiety of having leaders who don’t really plan ahead or know how to communicate.”

Reputation and values

Cherodian’s experience points to the importance of professional reputation – particularly in a small sector like market research. Workplace culture, good leadership and flexibility are increasingly important for candidates.

However, the most recent MRS Equality, Diversity and Inclusion report, ‘Who Do We Think We Are?’, explored how people feel about diversity and inclusivity at work, indicating that participants’ workplaces are less engaged with EDI topics and developing an inclusive culture than they were in the 2022 research.

While companies in the UK at least may be hanging on to their EDI initiatives, and return-to-office mandates have not been introduced in the same way as in some client sectors, there is also some concern that the recruitment process itself is not as inclusive as it could be.

Jemma Ahmed, whose client-side roles have included the BBC and Bumble, is looking at roles in market research, data analytics and user research. She flags her concern over the language of job adverts.

“The amount of almost slightly unintentional practices creeping in to job specs and recruiter screening make me very sad to see. It’s creating a passive nod that isn’t welcoming and inclusive and is going to be putting people off.

“There are a lot of people who are panicked about returning to the office, who are juggling a lot, who are experiencing the trauma fallout that is happening at the minute.”

Ahmed also takes aim at the lack of salary transparency from employers, saying: “I’ve yet to see a single job ad in market research which has been transparent about pay. That’s bad in terms of gender equality. User research and data analytics is a bit better, but it’s not there yet.”

While such issues may not necessarily directly impact her personally, Ahmed makes the point that it affects her perception of employers. “It definitely impacts where I’m willing to look at. At a time when those kinds of things are needed more than ever, we as an industry aren’t showing up, and we haven’t been showing up for years. That’s really quite saddening.”

Ahmed describes it as “a very strange job market”. We speak when she is early in her search after returning from a break, and she notes there are a large number of mid-level roles, hypothesising that companies may be dialling back on more expensive senior hires in a tough market.

She has also noticed “a lot of stress amongst hiring managers”, with reticence to have an informal conversation, and she criticises ghosting, which she says is resulting in “a lot of ill will” in the industry.

Ahmed adds: “Times are tough, but the mark of your values is showing up with them when times are tough. It makes me feel angsty because at the minute, if we’re all going to pull through –  [with an] economic downturn, with lots of tech innovation and roles being squeezed, with user research, market research, customer experience and data analytics all coming together, you do that with steady leadership and a steady hand, not with a panic mentality. It worries me a little bit when I see that.”

Greater expectations, less wiggle room

In an uncertain economy, hiring new starters tends to take a hit, and the research sector is seeing a lower level of early-career recruitment. Recruiter Saher Khalid, principal consultant at Nicholson Glover, says that of the junior briefs coming across her desk, she and her colleagues are receiving feedback from candidates or clients that people are leaving and then not being readily replaced. “While I think we’re going to see some graduate role, they’re not going to be the same volume we’d normally see,” she says.

Where there is recruitment for more junior roles, it has also become more specific, with less room for candidates looking to pivot, according to Khalid, who notes that employers are becoming more selective. “Even at a junior level, there’s still a good requirement on specific skill sets – like-for-like backgrounds, experience with certain methodologies, working in specific projects – and it’s less about pivoting. I feel traditionally at a junior level, there has been [an attitude of] ‘you can do surveys or you can do a focus groups, and we can teach you the rest of it’ and  it is now a little bit more difficult to pivot at the moment.”

The addition of AI into the insights process in the last couple of years has also impacted what employers want to see from early-career candidates, according to Khalid, who notes that more companies are seeking AI knowledge and expertise, which places more expectations on junior professionals.

The increase in AI adoption, alongside uncertainty about what the future looks like has created a situation where insights employers are not recruiting at entry-level, according to Liz Norman, chief executive at Elizabeth Norman International (ENI).

“There is virtually no new starter recruitment, certainly not by the traditional employers of research and insight,” says Norman, who shares that one employer told her agency that they are not planning to take on any new starters for the foreseeable future because the work that they typically give new starters, they can now do on the whole with AI.

Norman caveats that it’s more of a complex picture than AI alone – she points to offshoring – but adds: “Large organisations don’t know what the future candidate in insight will look like in three years’ time, and therefore they’re not recruiting them now because they don’t know what they want in three years. But the problem is, there won’t be anybody in three years. There are small pockets, but the vast majority of recruitment in that area has died a death.”

Norman is also concerned that the sector is not investing enough in its people. A survey ENI conducted for its annual insights census found that under half ( 48%) of respondents felt they had sufficient training and mentoring opportunities.

“In a market that is changing as quickly as this, we’re not investing in developing and training the existing people, and we’re not bringing in new people. It’s terrifying. The industry right now is so focused on AI and has completely forgotten that actually, people are really important.”

Ahmed feels there has been a stronger industry reaction and “panic” in response to AI than with other previous technological evolutions.

“AI is important but it’s not quite as scary as a lot of the job specs suggest. It’s creating almost an artificial panic,” says Ahmed. “Yes, it’s important and we all need to adapt, but that reactionary all-hands-on-deck, every job must have a very high level of skills is probably overstating what the tech can do right now and what it’s wise to do right now.”

There’s no doubt that AI is shaping professionals’ thinking, but for Cherodian, it’s not about worrying that it’s taking researchers’ jobs. That said, she points out: “I have learned that I should be paying attention to AI and considering how I shape my own career path and build an understanding or thought leadership around it.”

Flexible recruitment

On the employer front, Suzy Hassan, managing director and co-founder at Potentia, says turbulence in the market means there is no shortage of candidates applying for roles at the company. While this makes recruitment easier in some respects, it also brings challenges in the form of the time and resources needed to go through the recruitment process, she explains, adding: “We also risk taking too long to recruit which could be problematic for us as a fast-growing new business.”

To address this, Potentia has involved staff on all levels in the screening process, which Hassan says has been beneficial for both candidates and staff. “We still see a lack of diversity with inbound applications, so our next step is to find more creative ways of recruitment to increase diversity across Potentia,” she adds.

In response to realising the company had created new roles which align to candidates it had rejected in the past, Potentia is now open to speculative recruitment.

Hassan says: “The vast majority of our roles are newly created, so this is advantageous as we can be agile and tailor a job to an individual based on their experience and the company requirements in the moment. Having a pipeline of potential staff allows us to be more reactive to any changes, be that within the company or in the market, at any given time. The main challenge with this is obviously timing, as we usually speak to candidates who are looking for a change there and then, which we obviously can’t always offer, but speculative recruitment has saved us a stage in recruitment when the right role has opened up, so we can act quickly.”

Human perspective

Finding a new role is tricky under most circumstances, and connection to others is important for retaining perspective.

Cherodian is an advocate for mentoring and networking, saying: “My mentors gave me a lot of heart in the job search, which I needed – as it can be tough.”

Looking to the future, Alcantara is ultimately positive that the industry can flourish if it continues to focus on its fundamental raison d'être.

He says: “My conversations with other insight leaders suggest that our industry in a state of flux. We are still finding answers on how to sustain the insight talent pipeline. However, the need to understand human behaviour won't change, and I think that bodes well for the future of our industry, as long as we drive that conversation and find ways to meet that need.”