The job outlook for unemployed direct marketers in the US has sharply deteriorated since last summer, according to a new study by Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC, a major digital and direct marketing executive search firm.  

Jerry Bernhart, principal of Bernhart Associates, said: "In Summer 2009, we asked unemployed direct marketers how long they had been looking for a job. We decided to ask that same question one year later. Like last year, we broke down the results by levels of compensation, and for the first time we’ve segmented results by age."

The survey focused on respondents who said they are currently unemployed and are actively searching for a full-time direct marketing position. The survey’s results, therefore, exclude those who are looking only for part-time work, currently employed, or unemployed but only passively looking.

Here are the 2010 survey’s key findings:

• Nearly one-third of respondents said they have been looking for a direct marketing-related position for more than 18 months.
• The median length of unemployment among direct marketers is 12 months, nearly twice the six-and-a-half-month figure of one year ago.
• Older, higher-paid workers face much longer search times than their younger, lower-paid colleagues.
• The survey reveals that generally the best odds of finding a direct marketing job are either in the first three months, or between seven and nine months.

According to Bernhart Associates’ 2010 survey, 21 per cent of unemployed respondents said they have been actively looking for a full-time direct marketing job between one and three months. Twelve per cent said their search has lasted from four to six months, nine per cent said they have been looking for between seven and nine months and ten per cent said they have been on the job hunt ten-12 months. The remainder, 48 per cent, has been looking for more than a year.

When the results were broken down by salary, Bernhart said the survey reveals that lower-paid direct marketing job seekers are experiencing only slightly more success finding jobs more quickly than those in the higher-salary brackets.  

However, when broken down by age, Bernhart said the differences are more dramatic. "In the 30-39 age bracket, all respondents said they had been searching for a new job for less than one year," he said. "But of those between 50 and 59, half have been looking for more than a year. And if you are older than 60, you can pretty much expect to be looking for at least 18 months."

Bernhart pointed out that survey results are consistent with the challenges facing the overall US labour market. "In July, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nationwide median length of unemployment was 22.2 weeks, or approximately five months. While that is significantly less than the median for direct marketers, many direct marketing-related job categories require more specialised knowledge, more training and higher levels of educational attainment than other jobs that fall into the unskilled labour category."

A total of 448 individuals responded to the random survey, which was emailed the week of August 16 to more than 9,000 direct marketers across the country. Bernhart will repeat the Unemployment Search Survey in about six months in order to track changes.