To obtain a full picture on the span of persons working in the marketing industry, several methods can (and likely should) be utilized. The provided link to the Bureau of Labor Statistics only give the number of Marketing Managers, so it is an incomplete statistic.
Method 1
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The following is a snapshot of the numbers of persons employed in various elements of marketing in the United States. These titles include marketing administrators, marketing analysts, marketing consultants,
marketing directors, marketing forecasters, marketing managers, and marketing specialists.
- Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers - 286,800
- Market Research Analysts - 681,900
- Total BLS Figures on Marketing Professionals in the US - 968,700
Method 2
IBIS World
- According to 2020 figures from IBIS World, there are 1,804,855 persons employed in the global advertising industry.
Method 3
Collections of Anecdotal Data
US
- The website StudentScholarships estimates that there are 623,800 persons employed in marketing roles in the United States. Note: There is no date available to reference for this statistic, as such it is not considered to be wholly credible.
- DataUsa estimates the number of persons in the US working in marketing to be 963,000.
- Statista provides data on the number of persons employed in advertising and related services. The 2017 figure indicates that 485,291 were classified in these professions.
Outside the US
- Finland had 8,447 marketing related workers in 2018.
- In 2019, approximately 39,900 persons worked in marketing in Italy.
- 2018 statistics show that 195,000 persons worked in the United Kingdom in marketing professions.
Summary
Based upon these early findings, it is not anticipated that a more accurate representation of total number of persons working in marketing professions in the United States nor globally is likely to be obtained. The most likely estimate of US marketing employees is between 600,000 and 970,000 and globally is near 2 million. Some of the reasons for the lack of data is likely due to the way that marketing professionals can be classified as they typically fall into sales, marketing, and advertising categories.