Executive recruitment revenue at Boston’s 25 largest executive search firms dropped to $128 million last year, compared with $134 million for 2007, according to the Boston Business Journal.

The article quotes Dave Sanford, the executive VP of client services at recruitment firm Winter, Wyman & Co.

“Clearly we, like everybody else, have been feeling the downturn. It’s been pretty significant. What obviously happened in October is that [companies] put their heavy right foot on the break pedal all at once. Everything took a precipitous drop,” said Sanford.

He noted that Winter Wyman’s executive search revenue actually rose 12% to $20.8 million in fiscal 2008, which ended in September. However, business was down between 30% and 40% year-over-year for the last three months of 2008.