Recruiting Business Up Nine Percent

May 13, 2015 – May 1, 2014 (Greenwich, Connecticut) — Hunt Scanlon Media today released its annual rankings of U.S. executive search firms. Overall, according to Hunt Scanlon, the recruiting industry grew nine percent for the year, topping out at $2.3 billion in revenue among the company’s ‘Top 40’ rankings list.

“With few exceptions nearly every firm reported positive gains,” said Hunt Scanlon’s chief executive Scott A. Scanlon. Mr. Scanlon said that 35 percent of the firms on his company’s list this year reported double digit increases and 10 search firms reported growth rates of 20 percent or more. “All in all, it’s been a spectacular run for recruiters,” he said.

But finding talent is not getting easier for recruiters, according to the Hunt Scanlon ranking’s report published this month in the company’s flagship publication Executive Search Review. “Talent acquisition clients are demanding more, in shorter time frames, in an increasingly expansive – and compet­itive – universe,” said Mr. Scanlon. “Given in­creased competition from a variety of sources, search firms must justify their existence through search results that cannot be duplicated by social media sources or internal recruiting teams.”

Much of the industry dis­ruption that Mr. Scanlon said that he sees is occurring for search as­signments below the C-level – roughly executive-level positions that earn under $300,000 in annual compensation. But as access to information, and talent, is democratized through sources like LinkedIn, the im­portance of recruiting expertise is empha­sized more, he said. “Companies are more likely to engage search firms for key roles and difficult searches for positions they need to fill ASAP,” said Mr. Scanlon. “I think the industry realignments benefit smaller search firms and pose threats to the larger firms that have traditionally relied on their network and junior search consultants to execute assignments.” This might explain why the larger recruiting outfits are moving toward offering tangential talent and leadership services beyond their basic identification services, said the report.

About Hunt Scanlon Media

Hunt-Scanlon Media has been defining and informing the senior talent management sector for over 25 years. Our global staffing intelligence data comes in many forms: daily newswires, annual leadership and state of the industry reports, market intelligence sector briefings, and in our flagship newsletter Executive Search Review. Our exclusive news briefings, interviews, industry trends reports and rankings, forecasts and expert commentary offer unique insight and market intelligence as we track global talent management developments. Since our inception, talent management professionals worldwide have turned to Hunt Scanlon Media — making us the most widely referenced, single source for information in the human capital sector.

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