North America cements position as search industry centre

With only a marginal decline in the number of executive searches started in 2012, North America remained the centre of the industry as EMEA and Asia-Pacific showed strong decline.
Tue, 5 Mar 2013With only a marginal decline in the number of executive searches started in 2012, North America remained the centre of the industry as EMEA and Asia-Pacific showed strong decline.

This is according to the Association of Executive Search Consultancies' (AESC’s) State of the Executive Search Industry Report for 2012, which sees the number of searches started in North America declining by 1.1%, compared to an 11.6% decline in EMEA and a drop of 12.1% in Asia-Pacific. The fourth and smallest global region, Central/South America, saw a 7.3% decline.

North America increased its marketshare with 45.1% of searches, up from 2011’s 42.5%, while EMEA share dropped slightly to 31.5% and Asia-Pacific to 16.1%.

Globally, the total revenue for the retained executive search industry fell by 6.4% over the year, to $9.74bn (£6.42bn). Although average fees per assignments rose marginally by 1.7%, the average number of searches dropped by 7.1%.

Last week, recruiter.co.uk reported that one of the world's largest search firms, Heidrick & Struggles, saw revenues drop by 16% over the last calendar year, although with what chief executive officer L Kevin Kelly called “improvements to our cost structure”, the firm turned a 2011 net loss into $6.2m income for 2012.

The report is compiled based on the activity of 1,430 executive search consultants in 46 countries worldwide.

•    Click for more on the executive search industry, and see also recruiter.co.uk’s section on its sister industry, interim management recruitment.

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