NEW YORK, DECEMBER 21, 2006 - Seventy-one percent of 186 retained executive search consultants worldwide predict that the financial services sector will dominate 2007 global executive search activity, up from 66 percent for 2006. The results are from the annual AESC Outlook Survey, conducted by the Association of Executive Search Consultants from November 7 - December 8, 2006.

Executive job market by industry: Beyond financial services, survey respondents predict that executive search in 2007 will be strong in professional services (which include legal, HR and consulting sectors), pharma/biotech, IT, retail and manufacturing industries.

Sectors expected to weaken or flatten are non-profit and government.

Global executive job market: Nearly 80 percent of respondents indicate that competition for executive talent is at an all time high, with 93 percent stating they expect to experience a war for talent in the next five years. Correlating with that war for talent, the market for executive search is expected to remain strong.

As compared to last year's results, highlights for the executive job market in 2007 show that retained search consultants have even more confidence in search-industry growth for 2007 (84 percent) than they did for 2006 (77.1 percent). The result of the highly competitive executive job market means that 67.6 percent of executive search consultants plan to increase their own staff in 2007.

"Financial services continues to be the strongest and most lucrative sector in retained executive search, which serves as a barometer for the economy in general. The optimism of AESC member search consultants in predicting results for next year is not surprising when investment banks such as Goldman Sachs are posting record breaking profits and awarding huge bonuses to top performers", said AESC president Peter Felix.

Detailed results of the 2007 AESC Outlook survey of 186 retained executive search consultants include:

• Banking/Financial Services - 66.1% (56.3%)
• Information Technology - 30.1 (34.4%)
• Healthcare - 19.7% (27.9%)
• Professional Services - 27.3 (26.0%)
• Pharmaceuticals/Biotech - 26.8% (27.0%)
• Consumer Products - 21.9 (26.5%)
• Manufacturing - 19.1% (21.9%)
• Retail - 18.0% (10.7%)
• Telecommunications - 10.4% (16.3%)
• Mktg/Advertising/Comm - 8.2% (5.1%)
• Government - 7.1% (10.2%)
• Media/Entertainment - 7.1% (7.0%)
• Hotels/Tourism - 6.6% (6.5%)
• Transportation - 5.5% (5.1%)
• Education - 5.5% (4.2%)
• Non-Profit - 3.3% (6.1%)
• Publishing - 2.2% (1.4%)

• General Mgmt/Board of Dir - 46.4% (35.1%)
• Professional Services - 29.3% (28.4%)
• Finance/Accounting/CFO - 28.7% (33.2%)
• Engineering - 26% (22.6%)
• Diversity - 24.3% (27.4%)
• Information Technology/CIO - 24.3% (19.2%)
• Sales/Mktg/Public Relations - 21% (19.2%)
• Human Resources - 18.8% (17.8%)
• Medical/Healthcare - 16.6% (20.2%)
• Research and Development - 14.9% (18.8%)
• E-Commerce - 14.4% (9.1%)
• Manufacturing - 10.5% (16.8%)
• Materials Management - 6.1% (13.9%)