According to the results of an Executive Quiz released in early March by The Korn/Ferry Institute, 83% of executives expect it will now take longer than four months to find a job. Responses from some 1,000 job-hunting executives worldwide indicate that 28% of them have been unemployed for less than a month, and 36% less than three months. Only 18% of respondents say they have been looking for career opportunities for seven months or longer.
Respondents remain quite bullish overall, however, since 77% of them think that the demand for talent will increase more over the five coming years than it did over the past five years. Moreover, 50% say they are “very confident” and 30% “quite confident” of finding a suitable job in 2009. Only 10% have reservations about the probability of finding a job matching their expectations.
Some executives are taking advantage of their “free time” to go back to school—43% of respondents have started taking courses or are thinking about doing so while waiting out the downturn. Of these, 23% are considering MBAs and 16% other advanced degrees.
When asked what they miss the most, apart from compensation, when not working, the overwhelming majority, 74%, missed the intellectual stimulation of the workplace. Other answers included colleagues (21%), travel (4%) and perks such as an expense account, company car, lunches or tickets (1%).