Reading the creative hiring report

The creative hiring report is a free summary of what brands ask of 3D, motion, design and AI artists when they hire. It is read from the job ads the brands on our watchlist post, and it is free to read: no sign-up, no email.

What it shows

• The tools brands ask for — which tools creative ads name, by category (3D, motion and compositing, design, image AI, video AI, audio AI, text models), as a share of all creative ads.
• What artists use, what brands ask for — the tools artists tag most on their work and profiles on FOOH, beside how many of the brands' creative ads name them. The artists' side is a rank (#1 is tagged most), never a count. The gap between the two is often the story: a tool artists use every day that no brand asks for yet, or one brands ask for that few artists tag.
• AI in creative work — the share of creative ads that expect generative AI skills, and how many of those name a specific AI tool versus saying "generative AI" in general.
• Social-first demand — the share of creative ads that ask for vertical video, short-form, TikTok, Reels or Shorts.
• Remote and freelance work — how many creative roles are remote, hybrid, freelance, contract or fixed-term, beside all roles at the same brands.
• Junior or senior — of the creative ads that state a level, how many are entry level (intern or junior) and how many senior and up.
• Where the creative jobs are — the cities with the most creative ads.
• What the roles pay — the median pay creative ads disclose, by role, with the lowest and highest figure.

How to read a number

Every section ends with its sample: how many ads at how many brands the figure rests on, the period it covers, and the day it was taken. A share of a small sample is a small fact — read it as one.

• It is the brands' market, not the whole labour market. The report reads the brands we watch — creative-forward brands that advertise their own jobs — not studios, agencies or every employer. As the watchlist grows, each edition reads more brands.
• Creative roles are design & creative and content & production roles. Everything else those brands hire for (sales, engineering, operations…) only appears where the report compares creative roles with all roles.
• A tool counts only as whole words, and a name that is also an ordinary word only in context: a catwalk runway is not the AI tool Runway.
• One brand is not a trend. A tool or a city is listed only when at least two brands ask for it.
• Pay comes from the figure an ad discloses. It is never mixed across currencies, a monthly figure counts twelve times towards a yearly one, and a role's pay shows only when enough ads from enough brands disclose it.

Editions

The report is published in editions. Each one is taken by hand from a dated snapshot and never changes once published, so a figure you quote stays true to its date. /hiring-report always shows the latest edition; older editions keep their own address and are listed under "Past editions" at the bottom of the page.

The full report, for brands and recruiters

Under an edition you can ask for its full report: pay benchmarks by role and city, by role and seniority, and by all three, and a table of how the watched brands' creative hiring compares — each brand beside the typical brand (the median of the brands). It is the same edition, with the same date and the same rule that every figure states its sample.

• What it asks for: your name, a work email and your company, and, if you like, what you are hiring for. The full report opens right away, and we email you the link so you can come back to it.
• What happens to your details: the request reaches our team as a sales enquiry, and we may reply about hiring artists through FOOH. See the privacy policy.
• What a brand's row shows: only what that brand's own public job ads say — how many it posted, how many are creative, and the shares of those ads that are remote, freelance or contract, expect generative AI, ask for social-first formats, disclose pay or are senior and up. Nothing else we know about a brand ever enters it.
• Pay benchmarks follow the same rule as the summary: a benchmark shows only when enough ads from enough brands disclose pay for it in the same currency.

Artists don't need it: the summary above is free and whole, with no email.

Using it

Use it to see which tools and skills are worth your time, how much of the work is social-first, and where the creative jobs are. Then put your work where brands look: create your page — publishing on FOOH is free — and browse the job board for open roles.