Report: Economic Uncertainty Creating New Opportunities and Challenges For Corporate Leaders
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Increasing demand in the high tech, health care, energy and business services sectors combined with a shortage of qualified talent and sustained economic growth overseas is driving better than expected job growth at the executive level according to ExecuNet’s recently released 2008 Executive Job Market Intelligence Report.
“Job growth at the executive level is not moving in lock-step with the rest of the employment market,” says Mark Anderson, president and chief economist at ExecuNet. “Thanks in part to an aging workforce and global economic growth, the demand for executive talent continues to increase while the threat of a recession looms.”
According to the report, despite evidence that the economy could continue to shed temporary and entry-level jobs, recruiting and retaining executive-level talent will remain a challenging priority for companies in 2008. Following a healthy 24% increase in search assignments in 2007, more than 70% of search firm and corporate human resource professionals believe there is a shortage of executive talent and two-thirds (67%) say the war for executive talent has intensified over the last year amid increasing economic uncertainty.
“Unfortunately, many of the opportunities created this year will remain out of reach to those who fail to read beyond the headlines,” says Dave Opton, CEO and founder of ExecuNet. “However, given the current pace of change, the consequences of ignoring opportunities to enhance your network and failing to closely monitor the marketplace are clearly rising.”
Based on a simultaneous survey of 4,349 executives and 718 search firm consultants and corporate human resource professionals, and analysis from ExecuNet, this year’s report was produced in partnership with Goldjobs, Financial Executives International (FEI), Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), and Dillistone Systems/Filefinder.
Highlights
Employment Market Outlook
Executive recruiters expect search assignments to climb 17% in 2008, while corporate recruiters are forecasting a 10% increase in executive-level job opportunities at their companies.
The industries expected to generate the most executive job growth in 2008 include: High Tech, Health Care, Business Services, Pharmaceuticals/Biotech and Energy/Utilities.
