Executive Job Market Expected To Finish The Year Strong

The recent survey of 175 recruiters reveals search professionals are expecting the executive employment market to improve in the fourth quarter.

A growing number of recruiters (57%) report that business conditions in the executive search industry have improved in the last 30 days, up from 52% in both July and August. The majority, are expecting this growth to continue heading into 2004, as just 20% of recruiters are not confident that executive employment market will improve in the next three months. Of those expecting the executive employment market to gain strength in the three months ahead, 49% are somewhat confident and 31% are either confident or very confident.

Contrary to popular belief, the executive job market is improving, says Mark Anderson, President of ExecuNet. Unfortunately, the recovery is moving at a slow pace, which helps to explain why the rebound has gone relatively unnoticed.

In looking toward the next six months, recruiters are even more confident the executive employment market will gain strength:

a.. Just 6% are not confident;
b.. 31% are somewhat confident; and
c.. 63% are confident or very confident the market will improve.

Over the course of the next three months, the search industry is expecting a 9% increase in the number of assignments they receive from companies. For the next six months, this projection increases to 16%.

The fourth quarter looks promising, says Anderson. Should it meet expectations, both executives and search firms will benefit from a substantial increase in job opportunities.

To prepare for future growth in the executive employment market, 39% of recruiters report that their firm has plans to hire additional professional staff in the next three months, this is triple the number (13%) that have increased staff in the past three months.