Executive recruiters are following the same cautious route to new hiring as many of their clients, despite indications that executive job creation is increasing in an economy much improved from where it was just a year ago.

In March, ExecuNet's benchmark Search Firm Hiring Index revealed that 26 percent of 155 responding executive recruiters indicated they would be adding new professional research and consulting staff over the next three months.

That was down two points from February, but in line with the calculated decision making that many executive search firms have followed over the past two years. However, hiring by executive search firms may be revealing itself as a lagging indicator of the broader recovery in management hiring, as recruiter confidence in corporate hiring activity in the next six months is consistently outpacing search firms' own rebuilding plans.

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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