Independence Is on the Rise in Insights

The first half of the 2020s has been anything but boring for research and insights professionals. We started with two years of pandemic-induced evolution, which traded a boon in user experience research jobs and new technologies connecting a distributed world for a bust in many traditional research operations. The pandemic’s remote-first approach also enabled hiring managers in insights to recruit regardless of location, unencumbered by relocation discussions. 

At the start of ‘23, just as companies adjusted to the end of pandemic demand with a more local workforce,  partially due to staff rejecting return-to-office requests, strategy and insights teams paused with the release of ChatGPT and LLM madness emerged. Six months later, strategies adjusted, layoffs began again. With unfavorable interest rates and political uncertainty, research budgets remained down as companies continued to manage risk with a “wait and see” approach through ‘24.

Research and insights professionals relish being on the front lines of change, but we got caught in the crossfire. Figures from the US Census tell us that the marketing research companies alone lost 20% of their value and 5,000 jobs between 2023 and 2024. Over the same period, the market for UX researchers dropped further, with 4,000+ UX-ers laid off by FAANG companies in 2023 and 2024. UXR job openings were down 73% between the two years. 

Three years of sustained shrinkage in opportunities for full-time researchers and analysts of user, customer, product, and markets have led to an elimination of more than 25% of full-time market research roles between 2022 and 2025 and a surge in freelance and contract-ready research professionals. This year, the drive toward efficiency has led to continued job eliminations, especially in public policy, program evaluation, and public opinion research. Federal investment in this sector is at 2005 levels due to reduced spending. A recent MRII study noted a 6% decrease in market researchers recommending the profession, the first such decline in decades, with today’s researchers feeling overworked, stretched thin, and worried about AI.

In 2025, agility is table stakes for all of us. We continue to see trends of downsizing and contraction in the insights job markets, with fear from those working and desperation from those seeking roles. A continued focus on margin and risk reduction makes decisions with positive headcount implications in unfavorable, thanks to “uncertainty”.

The Insights Career Network (ICN), a volunteer-powered community supporting research professionals through career challenges and transitions, was formed in early 2022 and recently exploded to nearly 3,000 members 67% of YoY growth. We saw an immediate surge in new members coinciding with the release of ChatGPT in January 2023, and by Fall, job losses in insights were clearly mounting.

Reductions in force often lead to rounds of fresh creative thinking, resulting in new tactics and fewer people doing the newly focused work. These intrepid explorers are left to figure out how to pick up brand tracking and customer experience operations in addition to participating as scrum participants on special development projects and cross-functional committees.

It’s a buyer’s market.

The ICN observes a paradox: too many qualified candidates fighting over too few roles. Employers have the upper hand, setting terms and wages without negotiation, as they sort through applicant haystacks with 10 good candidates for every 1,000 submissions. The ICN’s recent hiring study with 70 hiring managers, recruiters, HR representatives, and job seekers in the insights professions confirmed this qualification paradox is disrupting our ability to find and nurture top candidates, encouraging reliance on personal networks over technology in uncertain times.

The fierce competition for full-time roles, combined with fewer remote opportunities, creates a disconnect between job requirements and worker preferences, extending job search durations. Our 2025 Member Census found that insights professionals are reluctant to relocate, unwilling to uproot their lives for potentially short-lived roles.

On the macro level, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) confirms nonfarm job openings have continuously dropped for over 3 years. Time to re-employment has lengthened for many professional roles, especially those affected by recent layoffs. The ICN Census also shows job searches for experienced insights professionals over 45 have lengthened to over 12 months, often two to three years. The more experienced professionals search, the more likely they are to pursue consulting work to maintain their skills and careers.

Consolidating teams and focused efforts with fewer people comes with a price. A narrower range of perspectives within a team can hinder vision and creativity, and reduced redundancies can create central points of failure in research operations. Limited capacities lead to knowledge worker burnout and the emergence of "jacks-of-all-trades" who lack deep specialization.

Hiring managers in the ICN’s hiring study are looking to limit risk and long-term investment, striving for operational flexibility. Tapping into the growing list of experienced, specialized freelance insights consultants may be just what research and insights teams need to fill the gaps in relevant experience and specialty skills. 

Since 2020, the Business Formation Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau data have shown a significant increase in new business applications in professional services overall and with the decline in full-time insights roles, we expect comparable growth in freelance and consulting work among researchers. The number of new business applications often rises in economic downturns as more people look for creative ways to earn income. Saddled by a sluggish economy and limited options to work where they live, many move to what 25% of Americans have done gig work. 

Natural Born Freelancers   

Each week, dozens of freelancers and independent researchers join online and in-person community meetups organized by groups like MRX Pros and the ICN. Each week, we hear from consultants who either jumped knowingly or were pushed into freelancing by circumstance or necessity. Experienced full-time insights consultants mix with a growing number of researchers using consulting to develop skills, pay bills, and build new relationships they hope become longer-term commitments. Freelance consulting offers them purpose, hope, direction, and desired mobility.

It’s time we leveraged more domain and methodology experts as focused independent consultants to relieve stressed insights workers, boost lost capacity, and bring humanity to our use of AI. When insights functions are constrained by headcount, a flexible, relevant, experienced workforce without long-term commitments can be the answer.

One reason to hire more consultants: it’s another buyer’s market, or perhaps a “renter’s market”. More available consultants mean more competitive rates, as acknowledged by UX Collective's 2025 report that "a significant portion of what used to be the designer’s job is now being distributed across teams, automated, or absorbed into business operations."  And that “with more than 76 million Americans participating in the freelance economy… Within the UX community, freelance rates have seen slight declines due to increased competition, but consistent project-based opportunities remain, particularly for designers with strong portfolios and specialized expertise.”

Sources:

1. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook – Market Research Analysts

2. BLS SOC data – https://www.bls.gov/soc/

3. BLS Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages - QCEW - 0 https://www.bls.gov/data/

4. BLS Duration of Unemployment – https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm

5. JOLTS – https://www.bls.gov/jlt/

6. Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics – https://www.census.gov/econ/bfs/

7. Household Pulse Survey – https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/household-pulse-survey.html

8.  Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes – https://wfhresearch.com/