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Job outlook for creative project managers in the United States
Are creative project manager jobs in demand?
Creative project manager job and salary trends over time
Creative project manager jobs over time
Creative project manager job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 733 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 710 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 693 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 632 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 576 | 0.00% |
Average creative project manager salary over time
Creative project manager salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $75,415 | $36.26 | +3.9% |
| 2025 | $72,593 | $34.90 | +1.9% |
| 2024 | $71,235 | $34.25 | +1.6% |
| 2023 | $70,142 | $33.72 | +0.8% |
| 2022 | $69,585 | $33.45 | +1.9% |
Creative project manager jobs by state
Most common states for creative project managers
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 787 | 113% |
| 2 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 2,730 | 37% |
| 3 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 2,420 | 35% |
| 4 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 369 | 35% |
| 5 | Vermont | 623,657 | 220 | 35% |
| 6 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 1,239 | 30% |
| 7 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 931 | 30% |
| 8 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 2,339 | 28% |
| 9 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 1,482 | 27% |
| 10 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 361 | 27% |
| 11 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 285 | 27% |
| 12 | California | 39,536,653 | 10,050 | 25% |
| 13 | Delaware | 961,939 | 227 | 24% |
| 14 | North Carolina | 10,273,419 | 2,330 | 23% |
| 15 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 170 | 23% |
| 16 | Pennsylvania | 12,805,537 | 2,761 | 22% |
| 17 | Wisconsin | 5,795,483 | 1,259 | 22% |
| 18 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 1,860 | 21% |
| 19 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 1,260 | 21% |
| 20 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 123 | 21% |
Most common cities for creative project managers
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Annapolis | 2 | 5% | $77,237 |
| 2 | Lansing | 2 | 2% | $73,005 |
| 3 | Topeka | 2 | 2% | $56,118 |
| 4 | Boston | 5 | 1% | $76,342 |
| 5 | Atlanta | 3 | 1% | $55,767 |
| 6 | Saint Paul | 2 | 1% | $64,600 |
| 7 | Cambridge | 1 | 1% | $76,280 |
| 8 | Denver | 3 | 0% | $64,771 |
| 9 | New York | 3 | 0% | $80,084 |
| 10 | Washington | 3 | 0% | $77,748 |
| 11 | Chicago | 2 | 0% | $68,314 |
| 12 | Indianapolis | 2 | 0% | $59,258 |
| 13 | Seattle | 2 | 0% | $79,448 |
| 14 | Baton Rouge | 1 | 0% | $58,599 |
| 15 | Birmingham | 1 | 0% | $55,650 |
| 16 | Dallas | 1 | 0% | $72,006 |
| 17 | Des Moines | 1 | 0% | $63,114 |
Creative Project Manager job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of creative project manager experts
University of Hawaii at Manoa
The One Club
What general advice would you give to a Creative Project Manager?
Frances Zhu: Get competing offers and negotiate a higher salary. Foster skills that lend to higher salaries. For example, even though marine biology may not pay the highest, if you have some coding experience, you will be one of the higher paid marine biologists in the field.
What will help Creative Project Managers increase their earning potential?
Frances Zhu: With the rise of AI, we're seeing a lot of skills become irrelevant. Just 5 years ago, a software engineering job seemed ludicrous. Now those are the fastest jobs being replaced by AI. A skill that will never be irrelevant is creativity, which is a skill you can cultivate. Create content and think in new ways that no one (even AI) has ever thought of.
What general advice would you give to a Creative Project Manager?
Yash Egami: A recent Forrester report says that the ad industry will lose 50,000 jobs through 2021, with 35,000 of them already lost since the pandemic. The traditional ad agency model was already in trouble, with many brands hiring away talent and creating their own in-house agencies. Add to that the recent reckoning with the Black Lives Matter movement, and what we're seeing is an industry that is being forced to go through monumental change in order to survive.
While traditional roles like art director or copywriter are on the decline, the good news is that, in an effort to reinvent themselves, agencies are seeking creatives with digital skills like UX design and programming. The rise of in-house creative departments has also meant more opportunities for job seekers within brands rather than agencies. And because of the demand for more diversity from clients and those within advertising, recruiters are making more of an effort to hire multicultural talent.
At The One Club for Creativity, we've been at the forefront of change in the industry through our diversity and inclusion, professional development and gender equality programs. We recently hosted our annual multicultural career fair, "Where Are All the Black People?" that brought together thousands of diverse talent with 40 agencies and companies looking to hire. We launched One School, a free online program for Black creatives who want to get into the industry but don't have a portfolio or the economic means to afford to go to ad school. And we're working on upskilling courses for professionals who want to reinvent themselves or keep up with the changing demands of our industry.
So if you're a recent graduate who specializes in art direction, our advice would be to keep an open mind about what kind of company you want to work for and think about expanding your skillset to include digital skills so that you can future-proof your career. Where you are isn't as important because, since the pandemic, agencies have become more comfortable with working remotely and they are more open to having a workforce not centered on the traditional agency hubs, like New York or Los Angeles.