Assignments are slowing, hiring plans are on hold, and confidence is plunging.
That is the evidence from the latest ExecuNet survey of 164 executive recruiters, with 28% confident or very confident the executive employment market will improve in the next six months – down from 36% last month.
“While recruiters’ outlook for the first half of the year has become more bearish, the jobs posted in our membership in non-cyclical industries including consumer staples, medical devices, healthcare, and government are generating more new opportunities this year than in 2008,” says Mark Anderson, president of ExecuNet.
In addition, he says, recruiters do not see their business prospects changing in the next few months, as their short-term confidence also slipped.
In February, just 12% of recruiters reported being confident or very confident the executive employment market will improve during the next three months – down from 16% in January.