What a difference a year makes. After a tumultuous 2009, executive search firms have entered 2010 with renewed confidence in the executive hiring market, and they're planning to bolster their own consulting and research teams to meet that demand.

The Job Trend Numbers

My company, ExecuNet, keeps a monthly Search Firm Hiring Index to track the executive job market. In the January Index, 33% of 214 responding executive search firms reported that they plan to hire additional professional staff over the next 3 months, a gain of 12 points from December.

Take a look at long-term executive hiring trends:

Percentage of executive search firms planning to hire additional professional staff during the next 3 months

Source: ExecuNet

Although we’re not yet back to pre-recession levels, it looks like the executive hiring fall-off has bottomed out. And with more executive recruiters expressing confidence in corporate hiring plans in the coming months, the northerly movement of the trend line could very well extend beyond the first quarter of 2010.

Conclusion

I recognize that health and safety professionals generally don’t occupy executive level positions. But these positive trend numbers are still relevant. The executive job market is a bellwether for safety and other corporate management positions. So, while it’s not exactly happy days are here again, it’s looking more and more like the 2009 jobs ice age is evolving into the 2010 thaw.

Wishing you career success!

Lauryn Franzoni
ExecuNet
www.execunet.com

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