Search Industry Expands To Meet The Needs Of An Improved Employment Market

As anxiety over mixed economic reports sent stocks tumbling, the number of executive search firms planning to add professional staff reached a record level in May. According to ExecuNetís Recruiters Confidence Index, a double-digit increase in executive job growth has a majority of search firms looking to add capacity with the addition of new consultants.

Introduced in May 2003, the Recruiter Confidence Index (RCI) is based on a monthly survey of executive recruiters conducted by ExecuNet, the leading executive job search and recruiting network. Independent analysis of the RCI has confirmed it is a ìleading indicatorî for the executive search industry.

According to the survey of 118 executive recruiters, 71% are confident or very confident that the executive employment market will improve during the next six months ñ down from all-time highs reached in March (80%) and April (79%). During this period of time, the executive search industry is expecting a 24% increase in the number of six-figure job assignments received from corporate clients.

To prepare for sustained growth in the employment market, 61% of all executive search firms have plans to hire additional professional staff during the next three months ñ a seventeen month high. In the last three months, 36% of executive recruiting firms have added professional staff.

ìExecutives in search of new opportunities and challenges are finding the job market to be very accommodating,î says Mark Anderson, President of ExecuNet. ìLooking ahead, the hiring plans recruiters have for their own firms is a good indication that the employment marketís recovery is on solid ground at the executive level.î

With the summer months fast approaching, executive recruitersí short-term outlook remained optimistic, as 72% of recruiters said they are confident or very confident the employment market will improve in the next three months ñ down from 85% one month ago. This softening is equal to the degree the outlook tightened during the same period last year.