The 2024 edition of Quirk’s Q Report offers insight into client-side researchers’ thoughts and opinions. Quirk’s has collected, shared and compared information to understand and analyze how the marketing research and insights industry has changed.
The 2024 edition of the Q Report survey received 502 usable qualified responses from full-time (defined as 35+ hours per week) client-side insights professionals from June 17 to July 23. We highlight some pieces in this issue and share respondent comments throughout but mostly let the data speak for itself.
Job satisfaction
Job satisfaction has stayed consistent in the past few years. Thirty-seven percent are satisfied with their current employment, 20% are very satisfied (three percentage points higher than 2023), 21% are somewhat satisfied, 10% are neutral, 3% are dissatisfied and 2% are very dissatisfied. Twenty-four percent say it is very unlikely and 17% say it is unlikely that they will seek employment at a different company this year.
Demographics
Similar to the past two years, individuals ages 36-55 dominate the industry with 29% of those being 36-45 years old, compared to 27% in 2022 and 31% in 2023, and 32% being in the 46-55 age range, compared to 36% in 2022 and 32% in 2023.
Experience in market research
When asked about marketing research experience, 62% of respondents had over 16 years of experience, higher than in 2022 (59%) and 2023 (55%). While a high percentage of respondents have over a decade of experience, most are in their first 10 years at their current organization.
Additional hires
Most respondents believe there is a low likelihood of their company hiring additional permanent market research employees in the next 12 months. Twenty-one percent say it is very unlikely, 17% believe it is unlikely and 10% say it is somewhat unlikely.
Respondents are even less hopeful about their company hiring additional contract market research employees in the next 12 months with 24% saying it is very unlikely, 19% believing it is unlikely, 10% saying it is somewhat unlikely and only 7% saying it is very likely.
Methodology
The Q Report work life and salary and compensation study of end-client/corporate researchers is based on data gathered from an invite-only online survey sent to pre-qualified marketing research subscribers of Quirk’s. The survey was fielded from June 17 to July 23, 2024. In total we received 1,504 usable qualified responses, of which 502 were from end-client researchers and used for this end-client report. An interval (margin of error) of 2.49 at the 95% confidence level was achieved for the entire study. (Not all respondents answered all questions.)