Confidence In The Executive Employment Market
— Next 6 months Executive Recruiters Confirm Management-Level Job Growth
Source: ExecuNet
Summary Analysis:
A growing number of companies are adding new executive jobs, fewer are eliminating them, leading executive recruiters to confirm economic recovery is beginning to take hold, according to ExecuNet's latest Recruiter Confidence Index (RCI) data released today.
According to January's survey of 214 executive recruiters, 64 percent are "confident" or "very confident" the executive employment market will improve during the next six months, up 10 points from December 2009 and the highest confidence registered since May 2008. Moreover, almost four in 10 recruiters say hiring will improve by the end of the first quarter.
Executive recruiters point to more signs that more companies are focusing on growth in the next six months, reporting:
Companies will be adding new executives jobs (21% up from 14% in December)
56 percent indicated they expect employers to leverage the current economic climate by "trading up" with new hires for existing management roles
Only three percent still see companies eliminating senior-management jobs
"We've been signaling this growth since recruiter confidence began to improve mid-year, but the good news today is that the economic recovery is happening and companies are starting to add jobs," says Mark Anderson, President and Chief Economist of ExecuNet, the private membership network for senior business executives and those who recruit them. "Despite this good news, the speed of the rebound seems slower than coming out of past recessions, so executives and recruiters should be prepared for a slow and steady rise in opportunity, not a rapid upswing," Anderson says.
Introduced in May 2003, ExecuNet's Recruiter Confidence Index is based on a monthly survey of executive search firms and recognized as a leading indicator for the economy and the executive job market. A reading above 50 percent indicates recruiters expect the number of search assignments in the next six months will increase.
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