- Jo Faragher
Figures from executive search firm Interexec show that headhunting for senior positions has jumped by 45% in the past year.
According to the company’s research, compiled from executive vacancies enlisted to 200 headhunters in the six months to June, there were 1,732 vacancies during that period, compared with 1,194 in the same period a year ago.
Companies’ increased willingness to hire staff on salaries between £150,000 and £1m reflects a confidence among recruitment decision-makers and an eye on long-term growth prospects.
“When [companies] look ahead and they decide that the time is right to do something of an expansionist nature, pretty much the first thing they’ve got to do is to recruit the senior personnel to manage it,” Kit Scott-Brown, founder of Interexec, told the Financial Times.
The research also revealed that senior vacancies in the oil and gas sector increased by the highest proportion, at 70 per cent.
There was further encouraging news for City recruiters this week, with research due out today by research company Coalition likely to suggest that staff levels in investment banks are beginning to recover and are likely to expand in future months.