While economists debate the strength of the US economy and employers continue to express caution about new executive hiring, executive search firms are likewise adopting a "wait and see" approach when it comes to expanding their own recruiting and research teams, according to ExecuNet's latest Search Firm Hiring Index data.


In August, only 17 percent of 181 responding executive recruiters indicated their firm plans to add professional research and/or consulting staff in the next three months, down four points from July.

Given that the increased executive hiring activity many recruiters had forecast earlier this year hasn't materialized, most search firms are watching and waiting for signals that employers are again ready to invest in new executive management.

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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