Outlook 08: No End In Sight For Executive Job Growth

While economic uncertainty spreads from Wall Street to Main Street amid growing concern over the fallout from the credit crisis, the outlook for the executive employment market remains a bright spot according to ExecuNet, the executive career and business networking organization.

Drawing from daily interactions with thousands of chief executives, vice presidents, and recruiting leaders, ExecuNet announced today its annual forecast for the trends poised to shape the top of the employment market in 2008:

Strong Executive Demand To Offset Slower Economic Growth
While U.S. GDP is predicted to drift below 2% in 2008, strong economic growth overseas will help boost revenues at U.S.-based companies with international operations. These global initiatives coupled with pent-up demand following four consecutive years of strong job growth and an aging workforce that is rapidly approaching retirement (the oldest Baby Boomers start to become eligible for partial Social Security benefits on January 1, 2008) will create a steady stream of new executive level job opportunities in 2008. Companies within the Life Sciences, Healthcare, High-Tech, and Manufacturing industries will to account for much of this six-figure job growth.

Job Prospects Brightest For Corporate Rainmakers
As U.S. economic growth slows, demand for business development and sales executives with solid track records of increasing revenues and building strong teams will surge as companies across all industries look to gain a competitive advantage by improving their leadership.

Executive Turnover To Rise
Record low job satisfaction levels and increasing shareholder impatience has corporate executives currently changing companies on average once every 3.4 years ñ down from 4.1 years in 2002. In 2008, an increase in the number of six-figure job opportunities available to executives coupled with mounting pressure to meet short-term performance targets will create a spike in voluntary turnover.

Succession Planning In The Spotlight
As the competition for executive talent escalates, public and private companies will increasingly turn their attention to developing more effective succession planning strategies ñ a glaring oversight in recent years. While integrating initiatives designed to identify and groom internal successors into a companyís strategic plan is a process best measured in years, as opposed to weeks or months, the impact on corporate performance will be apparent as Boomers exit the workforce en masse during the next decade.

Online Reputation Management Will Make or Break More Job Searches
In February 2005, groundbreaking research conducted by ExecuNet revealed that Internet search engines were helping to shape hiring decisions long before the interview process began. In an update to this landmark study, a 2007 survey of 131 executive and corporate recruiters conducted by ExecuNet found that 83% are using search engines to learn more about candidates and 43% have eliminated a candidate based on information found online ñ up from 26% in 2005. With the costs of recruiting and retaining senior-level talent increasing along with the amount of information available online, digital dirt will derail an even larger number of job searches in 2008.