At 42 percent in April, ExecuNet's Recruiter Confidence Index, languished just below the 50 percent mark which indicates a major advance. Solid, but not breakout, job creation and economic growth is likely to continue into the second quarter, unlike last year when it did not follow through and dipped back after a fairly strong first quarter, averaging just 100,000 jobs added per month.
The strongest sectors in April were Business Services, Leisure and Hospitality, Retail and Health Care, which continues to confirm that consumers are not pulling back on spending.
Job seekers should not look for a broad-based increase in demand and should be more focused on the individual sectors and companies who are looking to either upgrade or add talent. For recruiters, this continues to point toward modest growth in hiring.
Introduced in 2003, ExecuNet's Recruiter Confidence Index is based on a monthly survey of executive search firms and is a nationally recognized measure of the trend in executive hiring and is typically seen as a leading indicator for the economy. It is used by Wall Street financial analysts to value publicly traded staffing companies..
"This job search is very different from the one I managed four years ago. I appreciate the heads up about "responses." It was good to be reminded about the current state of the job search process."
