Two leading indicators of projected executive job market expansion — a monthly forecast of management-level job creation and a separate reading on executive recruiter confidence — lost ground in June but continue to paint a generally positive portrait of management hiring plans over the next six months.

In June, 29 percent of 153 executive recruiters polled by ExecuNet reported they expect companies to leverage the economic climate over the next six months by adding new executive-level jobs. Also, 48 percent forecasted companies will "trade up" with new hires for existing management jobs to improve leadership bench strength. Another 15 percent indicated companies would elect not to add new management jobs, while seven percent anticipated employers would choose to avoid filling current management-level vacancies. Only 1 percent of executive recruiters expect companies to further eliminate executive jobs.

ExecuNet's Executive Job Creation Index is based on a monthly survey of executive search firms and reflects responding executive recruiters' expectations of how companies are managing their executive talent needs. The Executive Job Creation Index compares the number of companies expected to add executive positions over the next six months versus those planning to downsize their management teams or delay filling vacant management roles. In June, that figure registered 23 points, down seven points from May.

Joseph Daniel McCool
Joseph Daniel McCool is senior contributing editor with ExecuNet and principal of management recruiting/succession advisory firm The McCool Group. He is also the author of Deciding Who Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct & Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent, recognized widely as "one of the best business books of 2008," and its Brazilian Portuguese translation, Escolhendo Líderes, published in June 2010.

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