There is a particular part of the talent market that feels increasingly difficult to recruit from.
Not junior.
Not senior.
The people somewhere in the middle.
We are seeing it particularly across agency roles where businesses are looking for someone with around two to four years’ experience: capable enough to contribute quickly but still developing and sitting within a realistic midweight salary bracket.
On paper, it sounds like a sensible brief.
In reality, that candidate pool can feel surprisingly small.
And there may be a fairly simple reason for it.
Today’s midweights had to be yesterday’s juniors.
The talent market has a delayed reaction
Recruitment decisions made several years ago have consequences much later.
The person who has three years of agency experience today probably entered the industry around 2023.
That was a difficult period for early-career hiring.
The IPA’s 2023 Agency Census recorded a substantial fall in first-year trainees within member agencies, from an estimated 1,387 in 2022 to just 756 in 2023. (ipa.co.uk)
The wider jobs market was cooling at the same time. ONS data published in early 2023 showed online job adverts in creative, design, arts and media running around 50% below their equivalent 2022 level at one point. (ons.gov.uk)
There was also a change in what employers wanted.
With margins under pressure, hybrid working established and businesses becoming more cautious, hiring somebody who required significant training could feel harder to justify. Industry reporting at the time highlighted hesitancy around junior creative hires, with employers favouring people who could become productive more quickly. (designweek.co.uk)
That might have solved an immediate problem.
A few years later, we are seeing what looks very much like the downstream effect.
You cannot hire a midweight who was never given the chance to become one
Talent pipelines take time to develop.
Someone does not leave university or their first job as an experienced Project Manager, Account Manager, Designer or Marketer.
They become one by working on real projects, dealing with clients, making mistakes, receiving feedback and gradually taking on more responsibility.
If fewer people enter at junior level, there will naturally be fewer people progressing into the middle of the market a few years later.
And this is not simply an issue from 2023 that has now disappeared.
The IPA’s latest census shows that agency employees aged 25 and under fell a further 19.2% during 2025. Fewer agencies were also employing graduates, trainees or apprentices than the previous year. The IPA itself has warned that declining entry-level roles raise questions about the industry’s future capability. (ipa.co.uk)
That should matter to businesses thinking beyond their immediate vacancy.
If we continually recruit only people who can “hit the ground running”, somebody still has to give those people the experience that allows them to do so.
What does this mean if you are hiring now?
The first thing is to recognise that a difficult search does not necessarily mean your recruiter has not looked hard enough or that candidates simply are not interested.
Sometimes the market genuinely is thin.
We are seeing briefs where the ideal candidate sits around the earlier-to-midweight level, but much of the available talent falls either side of it.
There are junior candidates with excellent potential who need more development.
Then there are stronger upper-midweight candidates who can do the job confidently but naturally expect a higher salary.
The narrow group in between can be much harder to find.
That creates a decision for the employer.
Do you increase the budget slightly and access someone with more experience?
Could the role accommodate somebody earlier in their career if the business invested more in their development?
Are all of the original requirements genuinely essential?
Could someone from an adjacent agency discipline or slightly different background succeed?
There is not one correct answer.
The important thing is understanding the trade-offs rather than waiting indefinitely for a perfect candidate at a price point where very few exist.
This is where the search has to work harder
A smaller market does not mean the right person cannot be found.
It does mean relying on an advert and waiting for applications becomes less effective.
The few people sitting in that sweet spot may already be employed and relatively happy. They may not be actively searching job boards or responding to every recruiter who contacts them.
Finding them means searching more deeply.
It means understanding the agency landscape, identifying people whose titles may not perfectly match the brief, approaching passive candidates and properly exploring whether their experience transfers.
It also means keeping the client informed about what the search is showing.
If ten highly relevant conversations repeatedly produce the same feedback around salary, seniority or scope, that is useful market intelligence.
The answer might be to keep searching.
It might also be to adjust.
Good recruitment should help you understand which.
There is a longer-term lesson too
This is bigger than a difficult Project Manager search today.
The market cannot keep producing experienced people if businesses stop creating the opportunities that allow people to gain experience.
Junior hiring comes with a cost. People need management, training and time before they reach full productivity.
But there is also a cost to an industry that does not invest in them.
Three years later, everybody starts looking for the same small group of midweights.
And five or six years later, the same issue starts appearing further up the talent pipeline.
Perhaps the question for businesses is therefore not simply:
“Where are all the midweights?”
It is also:
“What are we doing today to create the experienced people we will want to hire tomorrow?”
For employers recruiting right now, that does not solve the immediate vacancy.
But being realistic about the market does.
Sometimes the right solution is paying a little more for the stronger person. Sometimes it is loosening one requirement. Sometimes it is taking a chance on potential and giving somebody room to grow.
And sometimes the right candidate is there. They simply need much more work to uncover.
Struggling to find the right level of experience for your team? We are always happy to talk openly about what we are seeing in the market, where the realistic candidate pool sits and which compromises, if any, could open up the search without compromising the hire.
