After a strong rebound of 18% in 2021, executive hiring will continue to grow by 5% in 2022 despite the impact of the war in Ukraine which will slow the dynamic, according to forecasts by the Association for Executive Employment ( Apec) published on Monday. “While the year 2022 seemed to be taking the same path (as 2021), the impacts of the war in Ukraine have slightly changed our forecasts for executive recruitment. Companies nevertheless continue to consider hiring at a very high level, ”commented the director general of Apec, Gilles Gateau, in a press release.
According to its annual survey, carried out from November 24 to January 24 with a sample of 8,000 companies, then revised by the quarterly survey from March 7 to 18 with 1,000 companies, Apec forecasts 282,000 hires in 2022, i.e. the same record level as in 2019 before the crisis. The planned increase is 5%, instead of 8% before the revision. The three driving sectors of executive employment (engineering-R&D, IT activities, consulting), which represent 45% of recruitment, should remain particularly active with increases of 8 to 10%.
Sectors still in crisis
Other sectors, on the other hand, should still be very much behind, with hiring levels 20 to 25% lower than before the crisis (hotels-catering, communication-media, automotive-aeronautics, etc.). Despite production difficulties (absences linked to Covid-19, supply difficulties), the dynamic of 2021 continued in the first quarter. The proportion of companies having recruited executives thus increased by three points compared to the previous quarter and the volume of job offers on apec.fr by 16%.
For the second quarter, despite a climate of growing uncertainty, business confidence in the evolution of their order book remains high (72%) despite a decline of 6 points, more marked in industry (-12 points) .
Positions to be filled for more than three months
Recruitment intentions for executives in 3 months are down for SMEs (16%, -3 points) and large structures (58%, -9 points) but remain at high levels. For VSEs, intentions are up slightly (9%, +2 points).
The recruitment difficulties anticipated by companies persist at a very high level (78%) with strong consequences: drop in turnover if these projects do not succeed, work overload for the teams in place, delay in delivery orders… Many companies have had managerial positions to fill for more than three months: 5% of VSEs, 8% of SMEs and 36% of large companies.