Despite the distressing news from Ukraine, the continuing COVID issues particularly in China and HK, sanctions and everything else that fills the news channels, our global network of Search Consultants largely report that the mandates for Senior Executives in many business sectors and major markets remains very positive.

The problem in several situations is a lack of Senior Executive candidates entering the market. The following Search Consultant quotes illustrate the situation.

“The market continues to be positive. 2021 was actually a good year, search wide not just our firm and 2022 is much off to the same pace. It remains largely a candidates market.”

“There is clearly a pick up in the Senior Executive market including interim, and there are a number of factors at play so one cannot say that any one of these is the cause of the uptick, but what we need are more outstanding candidates.”

The overall message is still one of positivity and the situation in Ukraine is yet to have a tangible effect on markets, especially in the UK, Western Europe and the US and that applies across most business sectors.

Clearly the sky rocketing oil price has a positive impact on opportunities in the energy sector; be that renewables or exploration of fossil fuels.

As an additional positive knock on effect, several Middle East based recruiters have explained that a boom in oil prices has a positive effect for their region not just for energy sector roles; oil rich nations are able to invest into other sectors more readily thanks to increased demand for petrochemicals.

Looking further afield, hiring activity in Hong Kong has slowed down significantly due to the enforcement of a strict Covid lockdown on the city. Markets in other parts of Asia are less severely affected however opportunities into mainland China remain tricky.

In other business sectors activity remains particularly high including Private Equity, M&A, Insurance, Risk, Compliance, FinTech, Private Banking / Wealth Management and Consultancy.

Areas where opportunities are coming on stream comprise of – senior operational roles along with a general burgeoning interest in Senior Financial Services Candidates.

The InterExec global network of some 15,000 senior Search Consultants covers all of the major business sectors and geographic regions. Having been established for over 45 years, the network has been built to provide the most comprehensive base, enabling up to the minute assessment of the Senior Executive recruitment market and specific information on currently active mandates Search Consultants are dealing with.

If you are considering searching for your next challenge please do not hesitate to get in touch with the InterExec team.