Creative professionals may have more hoops to jump through before getting hired despite today’s healthy job market, according to new research by The Creative Group, a division of Robert Half International Inc. (NYSE: RHI).

It found marketing and advertising executives received an average of 32 resumes for each open position and meet with an average of seven candidates before making a hire — up from 23 resumes and six candidates in 2014.

“The hiring process has grown more complex, and employers are being very particular about the talent they bring on board,” said Diane Domeyer, executive director of The Creative Group. “They want to make sure candidates have the hard and soft skills needed to succeed, as well as commitment to the organization’s core values and goals. To set themselves apart, job seekers need to go beyond the basics by demonstrating qualities like adaptability, ambition and empathy.”

Other findings from the survey include:

• Empty seats for weeks: It takes five weeks, on average, to fill an open staff-level position. Filling an open management-level position takes an average of seven weeks.
• Searching near and far: Forty-five percent of executives said they are now more willing to look outside their city or state to find the right person for a creative position than they were three years ago.
• Connecting via email: A majority of hiring managers, 61%, prefer to correspond with applicants via email. In a separate survey, more than half of workers, 51%, chose email as their favorite communication method as well.
• A hard focus on soft skills: When evaluating applicants for creative roles, 23% of advertising and marketing leaders give soft skills more weight than hard skills; 58% consider both equally.
• Open to negotiation: More than half of executives, 57%, are at least somewhat willing to negotiate compensation when extending a job offer to a top candidate.
• Pressing for more pay: Nearly half of workers, 49%, said they would ask for a raise from their current employer if they felt they deserved a higher salary. However, 16% admitted they’d take no action, and 23% said they would search for a new job with better pay.

The report’s surveys were developed by The Creative Group and conducted by independent research firms. They include responses from more than 400 advertising and marketing executives and more than 1,000 adult workers employed in office environments in the US.