Job Outlook for Executives Is 'Strong' as Firms Seek Growth

In terms of sectors, health care has seen the biggest bump in hiring overall — and that goes for executive and management jobs, too.

“There are opportunities in health care because of aging Baby Boomers and health-care legislation,” Challenger said. “More small- and medium-sized firms are growing and they need stronger executive management,” he explained.

Physician executives who can run a 300-400 person medical group are in particular demand as are health-care technology executives, or “health information officers” as their known,  said Andrew Chastain, a health-care executive recruiter at Witt/Kiefer.

“Our clients are preparing for integrated information systems and they’re bringing in more talent to push that initiative,” Chastain said.

Energy companies and firms looking to expand globally in places like China and India are also seeing significant executive hiring.

Wall Street is starting to hire again but it’s nowhere near as robust as it has been in the past.

“They’re coming back out of a deep hole,” Challenger said.

The hiring picture on Wall Street is a tale of two cities, said Ilana Weinstein, CEO of executive-search firm IDW Group. Hiring at investment banks has slowed down, while hiring at hedge funds has picked up.

The reason, quite simply, is that’s where the money is, Weinstein said. Investors are finding it hard to make the returns they need from the more traditional investment banks. So, they’re increasingly putting their money with hedge funds, though they’re careful to stick with hedge funds that have been around a while and have a proven track record.

“They’re successful in raising capital and deploying it, and that’s what drives hiring,” Weinstein said.

Geographically speaking, the home of the nation’s chief executive is also the top city for hiring corporate executives.

Washington, D.C., topped the list of cities with the most managerial job openings per capita in August, according to the latest survey from job-search companies CareerCast and JobSerf.

Boston came in at No. 2, followed by San Francisco, Seattle and Atlanta. Cleveland saw the most improvement in management hiring, with a gain of 19 percent, followed by Houston, up 14 percent.

“During the past two years we’ve seen a major drop in managerial hiring activity,” said Jay Martin, chief operating officer of JobSerf, a job-search outsourcing firm. “It is encouraging to see the recent stabilization in recruitment activity, and some light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.