How Many Six-Figure
Earners Are There?
With the U.S. population approaching 290,000,000 and a total job market over
135,000,000, six-figure opportunities are still limited. According to labor
department figures, here are the estimated number of jobs in the U.S. that
currently reward people with salaries, commissions and bonuses at this level
(incomes below are exclusive of income from interest, dividends and capital
gains):
3,512,000 jobs at $100_199K (2.60%)
836,000 jobs at $200_499K (0.61%)
152,000 jobs at $550_999K (0.11%)
78,000 jobs at $1M+ (0.06%)
Of course, a significant percentage of people earning this income are doctors,
lawyers, consultants, entertainment industry types, including authors and those
associated with professional athletics, and entrepreneurs who run their own
companies. But, among the others, since people change once every three and a
half to four years, over 1,000,000 six- figure jobs become available each year
(of the 4.6 million above). Many other positions at this level are newly
created.
We believe that the number of six-figure earners is much higher than what the
government reports. This is because there are many people who earn at this level
but fail to report much of their income, as they take advantage of perks and
expenses rather than pure wages.
Besides the absolute number of people who now report six-figure incomes, it's
interesting to take a closer look at the size of the firms they work for.
If you take a slightly longer term view, over the last decade there has been a
profound change taking place in executive employment in America. The best
positions are often newly created opportunities with smaller businesses and
midsize organizations rather than more famous blue-chip companies.
We have been surprised at the growing percentage of our clients connecting with
employers who have between 25 and 500 employees, and who are involved in many of
America's newest and fastest growing industries. If your career has been rooted
in large companies, then some new thinking might be in order.
Obviously, there will continue to be many fine opportunities that become
available in the country's leading organizations. However, you should understand
that in most cases they occur as a result of retirements, terminations and
departures. (Total annual turnover is 25 percent in large corporations and
accounts for the vast percentage of six-figure opportunities).
Executives Contacting Us
Over a Recent 30-Day Period
These are only executives contacting our recruiting division. The entire market is more than 50 times larger.
Accounting executive -1218
Administrative executive -1694
Advertising marketing executive- 1118
Banking executive- 524
Bio/Pharmaceutical executive- 300
CEO/president- 2431
CFO- 1123
CIO- 960
COO- 2742
Consulting executive- 1039
Creative executive- 387
Education executive- 310
Engineering executive- 977
Executive- 1272
Finance executive- 1270
Financial planning executive- 545
General management executive- 4366
Health care executive- 525
Hospitality/tourism executive- 208
HR executive- 631
Information systems executive- 1490
Insurance executive- 380
Legal executive- 195
Marketing executive- 1258
New business executive- 2701
Operations executive—manufacturing- 1816
Operations executive—non-manufacturing- 2025
Retail executive- 325
Sales executive- 2062
Transportation executive- 253
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The Highly Competitive
U.S. Job Market
The competition for good executive jobs is more intense than ever. During the
period that you may be in the market, each aspect of your approach should be
optimized—your resumes, your letters, your networking, your direct mailings,
your access to openings, and so on.
Size of the market. The total size of the job market for professionals is about
3,000,000 new jobs each month. However, when you allow for casual and active job
seekers, at least 30,000,000 people circulate resumes each month. Staffing
publications claim that 18,000,000 people will seek positions above $100,000
this year.
Why competition has grown. With the use of PCs, faxes and e-mails, people now
distribute far more resumes. And, with people living and working longer, far
more people now look for jobs. With the growth of the Internet, many people also
leave their resumes posted online ... blurring the line between active and passive
job seekers, and increasing competition.
Candidates under consideration. Today, many employers have up to 200 candidates
for every attractive job. Even after you work hard to get a good interview, ten
good candidates are likely to be under consideration. This is why refining your
interviewing skills is critical.
Breaking Down
the Job Market
The current U.S. job market can be broken into six segments. Four represent
released openings which can now be reviewed through the Internet—if you know how
to find them. In any month, more than 1,500,000 jobs, 50 percent of all the jobs
that will be filled at a professional or executive level are available in these
four segments. Collectively, these are often referred to as the published job
market. The other two segments represent private openings in what we call the
unpublished job market.
When you enter our private website, you can find a wealth of information—over a
million and a half job openings and more— all in one place. With our connections
to job openings 24 hours a day, you can save weeks and even months of job
hunting. Let's briefly review each of the market segments.
(1) The direct-to- employer job market. This
market was not accessible until a few years ago, but 94 percent of major
corporations now hire this way. Every day, more and more smaller employers are
also posting openings on their websites. Why? The reason is economics.
Recruiting is expensive, and this is the most affordable way to fill a position.
With our website, you can instantly access employers with openings.
(2) The job market through professional job banks.
Also referred to as job boards or e'cruiters, some specialize in foreign
countries, others in industries. Others specialize by level. Through our private
website, you can now instantly access openings directly from any of the top
1,000 job bank organizations.
(3) The recruiter job market. In the past,
openings available through recruiters could not be reviewed. Today, thousands of
recruiters list jobs on their websites. Through our private website, you can
access recruiter openings from thousands of firms online.
(4) The advertised job market. This is a
large market, and more accessible than ever. Approximately 1,100 major
newspapers and over 1,000 major magazines are instantly available at the touch
of a button.
(5) The unpublished
job market through expanding companies. Historically, identifying
growth firms took weeks of library work. Now, we enable you to instantly access
them throughout the U.S. You can pinpoint firms with record sales or profits;
those receiving new capital; firms with planned expansions, and so on.
(6) The unpublished job market through contacts.
To access this market, you can take advantage of databases we maintain on
high-tech firms, associations, growth companies, service firms, manufacturers,
executives by college attended, small businesses, etc.
What Today's Job Market
Competition Means to You
To generate maximum interest in your talents, you must take a number of
different approaches. Most people should produce "interviewing activity" in each
of the market segments mentioned on the previous two pages, and we will be
assisting you in doing that.
To give you a little feeling for the competition, the following may be helpful.
Each month, Executive Search Online.com and its affiliate USA Executive
Search.com are contacted by 50,000 executives. While there are several hundred
ways to describe their occupations, the way they describe themselves is an
indication of the competition that is out there. A sampling is reproduced on the
next page.
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How Some of Our Clients View
the Executive Job Market
"I had never looked at this level before and made all the classic mistakes. For months I tried The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. I did a little on the Internet, discussed my resume with friends and sent it to some recruiters. The results were disheartening. Obviously, the market has changed. Your approach was enlightening. The best thing is that you have designed your service around all market segments, giving people many more ways to get connected."
" I moved in the mid 90s and went through a traditional outplacement seminar program. Their methods were totally dependent on networking, took a long time, and did not work very well. To say that the market has changed is an understatement. Recruiters approach things differently because of the web, and employers are filling more and more positions through it. The scanning of resumes today dictates a whole new approach if you really want to be successful."
"There's very little about older forms of job hunting that works today. But the good thing is, relatively few people understand the new market. Your approaches give people a major competitive advantage."
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