Talent Search Heats Up in High-End Job Market

TheLadders.com Quarterly Executive Job Market Trends Report Takes Pulse of Nationwide $100,000 Job Market

The US Department of Labor is expected to announce that 140,000 jobs were added to nonfarm payrolls in March 2007, signaling continued strength among American companies. What does this growth mean for the higher-end $100,000 job market? According to data tabulated by TheLadders.com, the worldís leading online service for $100,000 jobs, a high-end hiring surge is underway. The companyís Quarterly Executive Job Market Trends Report for Q107 found that the ratio of active job seekers to high-end job openings has decreased across much of the U.S., creating a job-seekerís market.

ìWhile economic indicators have been sending mixed signals through much of the first quarter, one consistent source of strength has been the hiring activity in the $100,000 job market,î said Marc Cenedella, president and CEO of TheLadders.com. ìFrom New York to San Francisco, weíre seeing companies looking to build their upper ranks.î

Regional Job Market Analysis
TheLadders.comís Quarterly Executive Job Market Trends Report measured hiring activity across a variety of metrics and found the hottest $100,000 job markets to be New York, San Francisco, Boston, San Diego, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Seattle. Thanks in large part to steady growth among Fortune 500 stalwarts, New York has reclaimed the title of the hottest job market from close competitor San Francisco. The New York metropolitan area is currently attracting the highest number of job-seekers from other parts of the country. The ratio of job-seekers to job postings in New York currently sits at 2:1. Among the firms doing the most high-end hiring in the region are MetLife, Avaya, Schering-Plough and Merck.

Elsewhere in the U.S., San Francisco and Boston have also seen exceptional strength in the technology and financial sectors, respectively. Companies such as Cisco Systems, Google, Sun Microsystems, Fidelity Investments and Liberty Mutual are all looking to increase their management rolls in the San Francisco and Boston. Likewise, a very low ratio of job-seekers to job postings has swept across San Diego, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Austin, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Baltimore and Minneapolis.

The tightest markets among the top 20 DMAs in the U.S. are Detroit, Tampa and Dallas. All three have seen decreases in out-of-state job searches and stiff competition for every available opening.