Headhunters Sniff Positive Change in the Air

Headhunters Sniff a Positive Change in the Stagnant Corporate Air.

Are you Ready to Catch a Wave?

Recruiters show a spike in confidence for the job market over the next few months but a dramatic improvement may be a lot further down the rocky road to recovery.

To gauge a headhunter's mood, look no further than the economy's health. They are closely linked. With prospects for financial fortunes improving, recruiters are growing more confident that companies will soon resume hiring.

The surge in optimism is sudden. ExecuNet, a networking forum for executives that conducts a monthly poll of executive recruiters, found in its just-released May survey that 57% of 143 respondents were confident or very confident that the executive employment market will improve in the next six months.

That was 16 points higher than in the April survey, and the second-highest monthly gain since ExecuNet launched the survey in May 2003. The biggest increase? That came way back in the survey's second month, coinciding with the easing of the previous economic downturn, when the confidence index shot up 20 points.

"Responses are similar to what we saw coming out of the last recession in the second quarter of 2003," said Mark Anderson, ExecuNet's president and chief economist, in a statement.

Word of Caution: Although headhunters' confidence is increasing, hiring levels are not moving, yet.