2021 had been the year of a strong recovery for executive employment, 2022 is the year of records. According to data from the Association for Executive Employment (Apec) published on Tuesday 4 April, approximately 308,000 recruitments of executives on permanent or fixed-term contracts of one year and more were made last year, an increase of 15% over one year, says Apec. The previous record dates back to 2019 (281,300).
These extremely positive figures should continue in 2023. “The volume of executive hires would be stable” at 308,800, thus remaining “at a very high level”, continues the organization, before drawing up a list of uncertainties which could put to harm this forecast: “inflation, geopolitical tensions, banking instability, social conflicts”.
Strong disparities
This apparent stability, however, hides a strong disparity between regions and professions. While all sectors benefited from the excellent momentum in 2022, the good forecasts for 2023 are almost exclusively driven by the good health of the “high value-added” sectors, which provide a lot of executives, such as IT activities (61,760 recruitments expected), engineering-research and development, or consulting. IT executives remain the profiles most sought after by recruiters.
On the other hand, industry, trade and construction “would mark time”, according to Apec, with declines of 7 to 9%. Geographical disparities would also be expected: only five regions would record progress and new records (Ile-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Corsica, Occitanie and Pays de la Loire), while the other territories “would see their volume of executive hires contract”.
A dynamic that affects young graduates
Apec also publishes a spotlight on young graduates, who benefit greatly from the positive dynamic: 88% of people with baccalaureate level + 5 and above who graduated in 2021 have a job one year after the end of their training, and half have already have executive status. Their median annual salary is 32,000 euros, even if a strong gender inequality remains (34,000 euros for men, against 28,500 euros for women).
Executives with between one and ten years of experience are the most sought-after profiles in the private sector, reports APEC, which recalls at the same time that “every year, companies recruit more than expected from the less experienced […]”. For example, the forecast for 2022 for junior executives was 48,000, while companies eventually recruited 54,200.
Finally, the study shows that remuneration is the main factor demotivating young graduates at work (42%), ahead of the feeling of being bored at work (34%), lack of recognition (34%), or even lack of interest or sense of mission (29%).