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Is Now a Better Time To Be in the Job Market?

76% of Executives Say this Year is Better than Last in TheLadders.com Survey <Back

Execs in Pennsylvania, California and N. Carolina are Most Optimistic;
Those in Michigan, Virginia and Florida are Least Optimistic

NEW YORK (July 26, 2004) - Workers in the top brackets of the pay scale are upbeat about the job market, according to a survey conducted by executive job search engine TheLadders.com. According to the survey of 1,478 executives in the $100k+ job market, 76.4% of respondents say "now is a better time to be in the job market than this time last year."

And though the overwhelming majority of executives are optimistic, 23.6% felt that last year was the better time to be looking for new employment.

How do the results stack up by state? Respondents from Pennsylvania have the most positive outlook on the job market, with 83.9% saying that now is a better time than last year. Eighty-two percent of executives in California responded favorably. And, 80.6% of respondents in North Carolina feel good about the current high-end job climate.

Those states with the least positive responses were Michigan, where 35.1% of respondents think last year was better than this one; Virginia, with 34% responding negatively; and Florida, where 32.9% are down on the current job market.

The survey of registered $100k+ executives was conducted by TheLadders.com from June 14, 2004 through July 22, 2004. The margin of error is +/- 1.4%.

"All of the signs are there for improvement across the board in the high-level job market," explained TheLadders.com founder and president, Marc Cenedella. "Our readers, who represent a cross section of the nation's top $100K+ talent, have weathered the storm and now they're dusting off their resumes and getting back into the job market. You can always read the level of optimism in the market by watching the ebbs and flows of job-hunting activity - executives are far more inclined to leave their comfort zones and start looking for new opportunities in an up market."

But, as Cenedella advised: "The outlook is not completely rose-colored. There is certainly a sense in the current marketplace that finding the right job will require a great deal of effort."

In a related survey of registered $100k+ executives conducted on TheLadders.com Web site from June 14, 2004 through June 25, 2004, a strong majority (47.8%) of executives said they expected to send 100 or more applications before getting an offer. Only 10.2% of those responding to the survey believed that they'll need to apply to less than 20 jobs before getting an offer.

TheLadders.com has succeeded in this exclusive slice of the market by turning the traditional recruitment business model upside down: it does not accept money from hiring firms, recruiters, or recruitment advertising agencies. Each month, the TheLadders.com team of experts reviews over 160,000 jobs to select more than 10,000 jobs for inclusion in their weekly newsletters. The company searches the Internet for job postings, or, alternatively, employers can list them free of charge - a critical difference from traditional job boards because it enables TheLadders.com to list every appropriate $100k + job opening on the market, not just paid listings.

This distinction allows TheLadders.com to filter out any questionable job listings that do not meet the company's standards. TheLadders.com does not charge a fee for its basic job leads newsletter for job seekers. Instead, it generates revenues by offering a premium service to job seekers, which includes a greater number of job listings, more detail, early delivery, and more features for $30 per month. TheLadders.com's premium service fee keeps unqualified candidates out of the applicant pool and, thus, encourages employers to look at TheLadders.com applicants first.

Marc Cenedella founded TheLadders.com in July 2003 after a tenure as Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations, at HotJobs.com, ultimately shepherding that company's sale to Yahoo, Inc. (NASD: YHOO) in 2002. In May 2004 he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by award-winning marketing newsletter, MarketingSherpa, which cited TheLadders.com's unique business model as a key to its sustained growth.

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About TheLadders.com
Headquartered in New York, TheLadders.com, Inc. is a privately held company offering online job search services to recruiters and job seekers in the $100k+ employment market. Ex-HotJobs.com executive Marc Cenedella founded TheLadders.com in 2003 to address the unique job seeking and recruiting requirements in this market sector. Investors include leading venture capital firm Matrix Partners and prominent private investors such as Kevin Ryan, CEO, DoubleClick, Tom Matlack, Megunticook Management, and Robert Chefitz, NJTC Venture Fund.

In addition to its primary member-based site, the Company operates vertical job search Web sites for sales, marketing, finance, human resources, law, technology, and operations. All sites feature daily job updates as well as industry-specific weekly e-newsletters. For corporate and executive recruiters, TheLadders.com delivers the same highly personalized experience. TheLadders for Recruiters (www.recruitladder.com) enables them to easily post $100k+ job openings at no charge. The Company further differentiates itself from other online job boards that fall prey to fraudulent job postings by implementing human mediated search, ensuring all job postings are fully qualified before being published to members.

More information about TheLadders.com can be accessed at www.theladders.com.

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Media Contacts
Maria Schiller
TheLadders.com
646-453-1913
maria.schiller@theladders.com