The salaries of specialists in a number of spheres of the creative industry grew by more than 20%
The salaries of specialists in a number of spheres of the creative industry, which, according to the plan of the Government of the Russian Federation, should provide 6% of GDP by 2030, increased by more than 20% over the year. In the largest plus-directors, scriptwriters, actors and animators, while journalists grow below the inflation level, and the game designers fall completely. Experts associate an uneven change in salaries with the needs of the public sector in raising certain values and personnel hunger in the industry.
“Kommersant” got acquainted with the data of the HEADHUNTER online recruiting platform about the dynamics of employees’ salaries in the creative industry in April-May 2025 compared to the same period of 2024. “Salary in the field of“ Marketing, Advertising, PR ”exceeded 82 thousand rubles, which is 12% more than for the same period last year,” the HeadHunter notes.
In addition to marketing and advertising industries, the greatest increase in salaries in the creative sector was observed among directors and scriptwriters – 26% (up to 70.4 thousand rubles) and actors and animators – 22% (up to 55.3 thousand rubles). Designers and artists grew up in a salary by 18%, architects – by 17%, photographers – by 16%. For producers, the dynamics of salary growth has not changed compared to last year (100 thousand rubles), and from journalists grew by only 7%, to 54 thousand rubles. At the same time, the average salary of gam designers showed a fall by 15% (from 118 thousand to 100 thousand rubles).
In February of this year, Federal Law No. 330-ФЗ “On the Development of Creative (Creative) Industries in the Russian Federation” entered into force to create the legal basis of the segment. Within its framework, the Ministry of Economic Development presented a list of types of business included in the category of “creative” to organize point support of subjects to achieve the country’s economic goals. According to the concept of development of creative industries of 2021, the contribution of the creative segment in the country’s GDP by 2030 should reach 6% at 3.2% in 2022. Earlier, “Kommersant” wrote that the regulation and development of the industry is complicated by personnel hunger and the fragmentation of segments in the industry (see “Kommersant” of February 9, 2024).
Participants in the market of creative industries are observing the growth of salaries in the creative sector around the world. “Creative industries include many areas related to the production and distribution of information products. Due to active digitalization, this sector is growing around the rest of the world, acting as a driver of the entire economy of the country as a whole, ”says Mikhail Umarov, Director General of the PR agency of Comunica.
“There are more requests for specialists than the market can offer. Therefore, the struggle for personnel occurs, including through an increase in salaries, ”says Igor Namakonov, CEO of the Federation of creative industries. According to him, the situation with a shortage of specialists in the market will gradually level out, but only in the future of five to seven years.
At the same time, in the creative industry, a higher demand for qualified personnel, the founder of the “School of Career Management” Aigun Kurbanova notes: “This is a market trend, and not only for creative industries, which is observed, including due to the outflow of personnel after 2022.”
According to her, the growth of salaries in some segments of creative industries and stagnation in others is associated with selective public financing. “The state is invested in those segments of creative industries that can help him in raising the necessary values among the population. So, the salaries of actors and screenwriters are growing due to the appearance of a large number of state projects by 2025. And those spheres of a creative economy that do not relate to these goals lose their budgets, ”emphasizes Ms. Kurbanova.
