Shout-out to the the good folks at Indeed.com for this recruiter job trends graph:
Also this week, a report released by the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) shows a dip in in worldwide executive search revenues. The AESC reports a decline of 6.3% from the previous quarter, accounting for the first quarterly drop since Q4 2006.
Year-on-year executive search industry revenues grew 2.8% annually in the third quarter of 2008, and the AESC says this represented the least year-on-year growth since Q1 2005.
“As might be expected in the light of the current economic turmoil, executive search clients are being more cautious about initiating new senior hires than they were earlier this year,” says Peter Felix, AESC president.
Nevertheless, he notes that the extent of the decline in worldwide revenues for the industry is still relatively minor and many parts of the world and many sectors are still showing strong demand.
Felix says he is “confident” that once the current uncertainty abates and organizations begin to plan their way out of recession that executive search consultants will see strong demand from clients who require help in finding and recruiting the best talent available to them.
“Executive talent is still in very short supply around the world and only few organizations will ignore the necessity to invest in their leaders for the future,” he adds.
The report also shows that the number of retained executive searches started worldwide in the third quarter declined 3.5% compared to Q3 2007. Searches decreased in all regions except Central/South America, which rose 18% from Q3 2007, the report shows. Finally, Europe experienced the largest yearly decline in searches, down 7.6%; Asia/Pacific was down 5.2%; and North America fell 2.1%.