Executive recruiters’ confidence in management’s hiring plans in the short-term hit a two-year high this month, as companies continue to actively pursue candidates for immediate hiring needs.

In June, ExecuNet’s benchmark Recruiter Confidence Index (RCI) revealed that 58% of 174 responding executive recruiters are “confident” or “very confident” the executive employment market will improve over the next six months, down from a recent record of 65%. However, confidence in the growth of the executive employment market over the next three months reached a two-year high in June with 51% of search firms expecting the market to improve between July and September.

“Despite the slight pullback in six-month confidence levels, the upward trend in short-term recruiter confidence continues and we see fewer companies are cutting management talent,” says Mark Anderson, President and Chief Economist of ExecuNet **, the private membership network for senior business executives and those who recruit them. “Our data continues to reveal that companies are thinking more opportunistically, albeit at the same time somewhat more cautiously, as they connect leadership needs with new market opportunities. The companies connecting to talent in our membership today say they are focusing more on building their executive teams rather than dismantling them.”

** a leading speaker at search-consult's upcoming Chicago Conference: "Maximizing Your Unique Business Opportunity In A Volatile Economy"

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