Is Now a Better Time to be in the Job Market?

New York, NY (July 26, 2004) ñ Workers in the top brackets of the pay scale are upbeat about the job market, according to a survey conducted by executive job search service TheLadders.com. According to the survey of 1,478 executives in the 100k job market, 76.4% of respondents say ìnow is a better time to be in the job market than this time last year.î

And though the overwhelming majority of executives are optimistic, 23.6% felt that last year was the better time to be looking for new employment.

How do the results stack up by state? Respondents from Pennsylvania have the most positive outlook on the job market, with 83.9% saying that now is a better time than last year. Eighty-two percent of executives in California responded favorably. And, 80.6% of respondents in North Carolina feel good about the current high-end job climate.

Those states with the least positive responses were Michigan, where 35.1% of respondents think last year was better than this one; Virginia, with 34% responding negatively; and Florida, where 32.9% are down on the current job market.

The survey of registered 100k executives was conducted on TheLadders.com Web site from June 14, 2004 through July 22, 2004. The margin of error is /-1.4%.

ìAll of the signs are there for improvement across the board in the high-level job market,î explained TheLadders.com founder and president, Marc Cenedella. ìOur readers, who represent a cross section of the nationís top 100K talent, have weathered the storm and now theyíre dusting off their resumes and getting back into the job market. You can always read the level of optimism in the market by watching the ebbs and flows of job-hunting activity ñ executives are far more inclined to leave their comfort zones and start looking for new opportunities in an up market.î

But, as Cenedella advised: ìThe outlook is not completely rose-colored. There is certainly a sense in the current marketplace that finding the right job will require a great deal of effort.î

In a related survey of registered 100k executives conducted on TheLadders.com Web site from June 14, 2004 through June 25, 2004, a strong majority (47.8%) of executives said they expected to send 100 or more applications before getting an offer. Only 10.2% of those responding to the survey believed that theyíll need to apply to less than 20 jobs before getting an offer.

TheLadders.com has succeeded in this exclusive slice of the market by turning the traditional recruitment business model upside down: it does not accept money from hiring firms, recruiters, or recruitment advertising agencies. Each month, the TheLadders.com team of experts reviews over 160,000 jobs to select more than 10,000 jobs for inclusion in their weekly newsletters. The company searches the Internet for job postings, or, alternatively, employers can list them free of charge ñ a critical difference from traditional job boards because it enables TheLadders.com to list every appropriate 100k job opening on the market, not just paid listings.

This distinction allows TheLadders.com to filter out any questionable job listings that do not meet the companyís standards. TheLadders.com does not charge a fee for its basic job leads newsletter for job seekers. Instead, it generates revenues by offering a premium service to job seekers, which includes a greater number of job listings, more detail, early delivery, and more features for 25 dollars per month. TheLadders.comís premium service fee keeps unqualified candidates out of the applicant pool and, thus, encourages employers to look at TheLadders.com applicants first.

Marc Cenedella founded TheLadders.com in July 2003 after a tenure as Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations, at HotJobs.com, ultimately shepherding that companyís sale to Yahoo, Inc. (NASD: YHOO) in 2002. In May 2004 he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by award-winning marketing newsletter, MarketingSherpa, which cited TheLadders.comís unique business model as a key to its sustained growth.