77% of APAC employers still can’t fill AdTech roles
A report on the AdTech & Performance Media talent market in APAC indicates that 77% of employers struggle to fill key roles, despite significant market growth. This talent gap is attributed to a disconnect between employer offerings and evolving candidate expectations across different generations, as well as shifts in required skillsets due to automation and offshoring.
Key Takeaways
- Southeast Asia’s digital ad market is valued at $28 billion today and projected to reach $64 billion by 2031.
- The report says 77% of APAC employers struggle to fill skilled roles.
- Large global agency networks have cut an estimated 10,000 roles through mergers and restructuring since 2025, with many reductions in Southeast Asia’s regional hubs.
- Demand is strongest for CTV/OTT advertising specialists, publisher managers and yield analysts, bilingual revenue leads, and AI-fluent performance media marketers.
- Execution-only campaign managers, platform-dependent data analysts, and non-specialist performance managers in regional hubs like Singapore face pressure from AI tools and offshore relocation to the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Why It Matters
The immediate signal is that headcount demand is moving away from generalist execution and toward CTV/OTT, publisher-side, bilingual revenue, and AI-capable roles. For the broader ecosystem, the report ties hiring pressure to a permanent agency restructuring cycle, with offshore delivery divisions up as much as 55% while headquarters cut staff and mergers continue through 2027. What to watch: whether employers actually adjust EVP, hybrid policies, and compensation to match the generational split the report describes, especially the 84% of professionals who want flexibility and the 75% of Millennials who would leave if forced back full time.
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