Executive recruitment on the rise in 2022

After the plunge in 2020 due to Covid, executives have regained popularity with companies since the middle of last year. The APEC website, which specializes in executive recruitment, has collected
145,100 job offers over the last three months. This is a record 24% compared to the same period in 2019. APEC estimates that the figure of 280,000 recruitments in 2019 will be significantly exceeded in 2022.

However, there are still strong differences between sectors, even though according to Gilles Gateau, Director of APEC, “there is clearly a catch-up effect”. Offers in the health/social action sector (+46% in 2021 compared to 2019) and in the pharmaceutical industry (+21%) are increasing. On the other hand, offers in the automotive/aeronautics (-24%), business consulting (-22%) and communication/media (-18%) sectors are down significantly.

Increasing recruitment difficulties

For Gilles Gateau, “this employment dynamic is threatened by recruitment tensions, which are now real difficulties”. Even if the year 2022 starts without too much disruption, companies are still experiencing increasing difficulties in finding candidates.
A quarter of companies that planned to recruit executives in 2021 have given up on doing so for at least one position. Those who plan to recruit in the first quarter of 2022 expect to have difficulties due to a lack of available profiles, a mismatch with expectations, competition between recruiters and also salary demands. Companies are therefore forced to lower their requirements in terms of skills and experience.

Recruiters can turn to young graduates whose employment rate has not returned to its pre-health crisis level. They can also turn to the over-55s, where they are still very numerous and where the unemployment rate remains high. These seniors are ready to make efforts on their salary and on the type of contract.

👨🎓👩🎓 Do you also have executive recruitment projects or encounter difficulties in finding the right skills?
👉 In this case, contact us to talk about it and allow you to access our European network of skills, more than 29,700 contacts to date.