2016 BlueSteps Job Outlook Report

The 2016 BlueSteps Job Outlook Report, just released by Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants, shows that global executive optimism has decreased 10.9 percentage points since 2014. Forty-one percent of respondents expect the number of senior management-level positions to remain sluggish as the number of professionals seeking a new opportunity continues to increase, reaching its highest point since 2010 - 90.2 percent.

Glenda K. Brown, Managing Director, AESC & BlueSteps, commented, “The survey data indicates that today’s executives must not only be agile leaders, they must also embrace agility in their career management. While 90 percent of executives will certainly not transition to new positions in 2016, this report suggests that even as passive candidates, more executives than ever are considering their career progression, not only when actively looking to make a move, but also when they are happily employed and making a big impact in their current organizations. Today’s executives realize that career management is a constant, and many are investing in their careers over the long-term through executive coaching, by strengthening their digital expertise and building their personal brands.”

Additional findings from the report include:

• Technology and healthcare/life sciences continue to rank as the sectors that will present the most management-level job vacancies in 2016.
• USA, India and China remain top-ranked countries for executive job growth potential.
• Latin American optimism continues to rank significantly lower than the global percentage - 16.1 percentage points lower. 50.7 percent of respondents in Latin America expect the number of senior management-level jobs to decrease in 2016.

This data for the report was generated by AESC’s BlueSteps survey of 837 management professionals, director-level through C-suite. BlueSteps is an executive-level career management service that is accessible by 350+ of the AESC’s top executive search firms. BlueSteps membership grew 9.5% in 2015, with new executives continuing to join from across the world.

A full copy of the 2016 BlueSteps Executive Job Outlook Report can be found here.