Once again, the number of companies expecting to recruit for senior-executive roles over the next six months is higher than the number of employers planning to shed management jobs during the same time, according to the results of a recent survey of 180 executive recruiters by ExecuNet.

In November, ExecuNet's benchmark Executive Job Creation Index stayed in positive territory, with companies planning to hire executives outnumbering those planning to engage in management cutbacks.



The Index, which 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, registered a +6 reading in November, up five points from October.

"We're glad to see the Executive Job Creation Index data on the positive side of the ledger, and we're seeing more optimism among executive recruiters as they plan for 2012," said Mark Anderson, president and chief economist of ExecuNet. "In recent months, companies have been hiring new talent to upgrade the executive talent on their management bench. Now, more of them are thinking opportunistically about 2012 and recognizing they need to deepen their bench in order to achieve their strategic goals in the year ahead," Anderson added.

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 and whether they're adding new management roles.

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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