A context which always remains favorable. After increasing by 7% and reaching a historic record in 2023, executive recruitment should further increase slightly this year, according to forecasts from the Association for Executive Employment (Apec) published this Tuesday. Despite the economic slowdown, the number of executive recruitments could rise to 337,000 this year, after 330,700 in 2023.
Last year, 66,600 promotions to executive status were added to these recruitments, with a total of 22.5% of private sector employees having this status, compared to only 14% in 2005, indicated the director general of the Apec Gilles Gateau during a press presentation.
The number of exits through resignations, layoffs and retirements increased by 7% in 2023 to reach 311,900, including 41,400 retirements, the other departures being essentially linked to the mobility of employees leaving one company for another . Last year, 85,400 additional executive positions were created, or 6% more than in 2022. The increase in the number of positions is greater than in previous years.
“No reversal effect”
In 2024, there will be “no reversal effect” in the executive job market, estimates Gilles Gateau. Companies “in a context where it is difficult to recruit, difficult to find the skills we are looking for, will have retention behaviors” by avoiding “adjusting their workforce in too short a term”, he explains. . But “we are perhaps reaching a plateau” and “a level of recruitment which will stabilize at this very high level”, judged the deputy general director of Apec Laetitia Niaudeau.
To explain this slowdown, she cites the latest figures from the Banque de France, according to which “business investment could fall by 0.4%” this year”, an indicator which is more important for employment of executives than household consumption.
Three sectors of activity should concentrate more than half (52%) of executive recruitment this year, with IT coming first followed by sales and marketing, then the studies, research and development sector. One activity is an exception: real estate, where forecasts for executive hiring are falling by 30% this year, due to the major crisis experienced by this sector. The industry, for its part, benefited from good recruitment dynamics last year with an increase of 15%, but at a total level much lower than high value-added services, which for their part increased by 8%.