More Room at the Top

Quite suddenly, the long-dormant job market for top-and middle-level executives has turned around. "March was the biggest month in our 26-year history," exults Frederick Linton, president of Boyden Associates Inc., a Manhattan-based executive-search firm. Thomas Meade, president of Kremple & Meade in Los Angeles, says that his company has experienced "one of the greatest reversals ever--from a turgid executive job market to an extremely active one."

The upswing is uneven. Aerospace and computer companies still offer few jobs, but construction, real estate, healthcare, pharmaceutical, leasing and financial firms are actively looking for new managers. Financial and marketing officers are most in demand. Salaries are up too; some companies will pay 10% or 15% more to fill a slot than they would have a year ago. They have more top jobs than middle-management openings to fill, and age is a barrier only to those in the middle ranks. One major Manhattan recruiter notes that a 63-year-old executive who earns $200,000 a year has an easier time switching jobs than a middle-manager in his 50s who makes $ 15,000. The Boyden agency is searching for 18 presidents v. a "normal" twelve to 14.

The continued rise in the U.S. economy is not the only reason for the upturn on top. Some companies got too enthusiastic about lopping off "unneeded" managers last year, and now must refill some jobs. Still, traces of recession-bred caution remain. Employers take much longer to make sure that they find just the right man for a post. Searches that used to be finished in six weeks now often last three to four months.

The executive market is just a bit too active for one search firm, Wilkinson, Sedwick & Yelverton in Los Angeles. Last month its members voted to take in Robert P. Gray, a former Litton Industries manager, as a partner. On the way to his first company meeting, Gray got a phone call offering him a different job. He traveled East to look into it--and joined Manhattan's Wheelabrator-Frye, a pollution-control-equipment company, as a senior vice president at $120,000 a year.

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