The legitimisation of creativity as an occupation and the institutionalisation and appropriation of the job title.
BY:
Salvatore Nicci
Technology Analyst / Reporter
PROJECT COUNSEL MEDIA
5 July 2021 (Brussels, Belgium) – As most of our readers know, The Posse List is only one unit of The Project Counsel Group and handles the information technology/informatics/legal services/legal technology sector across all regions. That sector comprises 62% of our job postings and there are 38,000+ job seekers and about 8,000 industry members in that sector.
But our fastest growing units are in our other industries:
– advertising/media
– artificial intelligence
– cyber security
– journalism
– TMT (telecommunications-media-technology)
But the sector that is off-the-charts is the “creator economy” of which we have had only a small part but now will have an increasing part after our acquisition of a private advertising/digital media staffing company. We’ll have more later this week because it occurred during our coverage of Cannes Lions this year.
The “creator economy” has become one of the biggest buzzwords of the last year or so, emerging as platforms like Spotify scooped up exclusivity deals and swirling around the rise of companies like Substack. But the growth of the creator economy has propelled it far past the status of buzzy trend. Hiring data shows that companies across a wide variety of industries have cranked hiring for positions related to creators up to a fever pitch, cementing it as one of the most dominant forces in business and shaping the jobs of the future.
Over the past five years, job listings featuring the keyword “Creator” in their title or description have increased by a staggering 489,000%, according to Thinknum data, one of the competitive intelligence companies we follow and to which we subscribe. A search of nearly 3 million job listings across industries in May revealed 92,900 positions relating to creators.
Many of the job listings come from major tech and social media platforms already known for courting and catering to creators: Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Spotify, TikTok and more all have job listings involving creators. Companies in the video game industry like Logitech, Unity, and Ubisoft, which have a long-running history of partnering with and sponsoring creators, also heavily feature creator-oriented job listings.
Amazon has the highest number of “creator” job listings of all tracked companies with 40 of the 92,900 positions tracked in May, showing the wide range of companies hiring for creator positions; the top ten include tech firms like Bytedance, payment services like PayPal, Digital marketing agencies like Vaynermedia, and even clothing brands like Adidas.
Some creator job listings are what you might expect – companies hiring creators to make content specific to their platforms or brands. One listing from Khan Academy seeking a “Biology Video Creator” is an example of an archetypical creator job, listing “creating new content and/or editing content as needed to improve quality based on quantitative data and qualitative feedback from users and experts” as a responsibility and asking that candidates have “experience creating learner-facing content, ideally in an online environment.”
But the majority of “creator” job listings are not seeking to hire actual creators. Instead, they are often hiring engineers or personnel to create products specifically for and to interact with creators, showing that creators are influencing the hiring decisions and products developed by major tech companies.
Many of the open positions at tech companies are dedicated to creating products specifically for creators, like one for an Engineering Manager of Creator Platforms at Pinterest, a “Creator Data Analyst” position at Amazon (which we recently advertised on our digital media job listserv), and a Product Specialist for Creators, Community and Safety at YouTube. Just as many are focused on dealing directly with creators, like a position for a Head of Gaming Creator Partnerships at Facebook.
In the past, the value of social media and tech platforms was perceived to be in their “algorithm,” like YouTube’s recommendations system or TikTok’s “For You” page. But now, creators hold massive sway over the decisions large firms across industries make. Companies aren’t just devoting new hires to working with and attracting creators – they’re paying huge sums for exclusivity deals, developing new platforms, and revamping existing systems to draw in creators.
For those of you much younger than us, the hobbies your parents told you not to waste your time with are now a driving the decisions of some of the world’s most powerful companies.
About the Data
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online, jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings, and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
